The longer human activities are changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the more visible, wider, and longer lasting the scope of environmental impacts may be. Your challenge is to tell a visual story about the impacts of the pandemic using Earth observation data and other complementary information.
WHO declared Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a pandemic which originated at Wuhan, China. Multiple strategies were implemented by the Indian government to handle the current outbreak which include 55 days lockdown throughout the country that started on 24 March 2020. Lockdown on economic activities gave the benefits of reducing air pollution in India dramatically. The project examines the impact of lockdown on Air Pollution in India by comparing various data indicator's of the EO Dashboard, with those of the previous years. This is indeed an appropriate time to conduct analyses and bend the curve of air pollution substantially. Our Project - https://mrym724.github.io/theproject.github.io/
How we addressed this challenge
What did we develop?
We developed a visual story "Corona - A Blessing in Disguise" which showed a positive impact of COVID-19 pandemic on air quality. The project is in the form of website.
Why is it important?
We develop a visual story so that I can convey my information of the project and complex data into a simple one so that everybody can understand. Passing a complex information visually is easy and the results have more impact. We can have deeper connection with the audience.
What does it do?
By displaying my project in a visual story I can bring public awareness about how the environment should be kept clean by reducing air pollution as seen in the pandemic period. In our story, we bring into notice the positive effects of pandemic, teach our viewers how we can improve air quality without the occurrence of pandemic and how they can implement measures which would improve air quality.
What do we hope to achieve?
Air pollution is considered as a major environmental risk factor. It increases the risk of respiratory infections such as asthma, heart disease and lung cancer. 7 million people die each year due to air pollution and 91 percent of the Earth's population lives in places where air quality exceeds World Health Organization (WHO) guideline limits, says WHO. Exposure to increase air pollution can caused a variety of adverse health effects. Raising awareness about the air pollution and educate the people with the help of our project and teach them what they can contribute to improve air quality, is what we hope to achieve.
How we developed our project
What inspired us to choose this challenge?
We choose the visual storytelling challenge to convey our message of public awareness through entertainment means like storytelling.
We had created a story of the positive impacts of the lockdown during pandemic on air quality. We found out a solution to the problem of air pollution on how humans can blend with nature rather than creating cement jungles. This approach and thinking really inspired us.
What was our approach developing this project?
Our approach developing this project was to make a greater public awareness and changes in people's personal behavior to minimize air pollution.
In our project,
1) We tend to educate people on how to implement measures for controlling air pollution such as using solar power, electric vehicles etc.
2) To make air quality education a priority to protect public health and achieve clean air standards.
3) Encourage the purchase and use of low or zero emission vehicles.
What tools, coding languages, hardware, software did we use to develop your project?
For this project, I developed a website and a demo video for displaying my project publicly.
For developing my website I used :
Programming Languages : HTML, CSS.
Software, tools : Visual Studio Code
For developing my demo video I used :
Software, tools : OBS Studio, PowerDirector (Android version)
We collected data for our project from Earth Observation Dashboard and other sources. Here is the list of the data sources we used from space agencies like NASA, ESA and JAXA :
1) We collected Greenhouse gases (Mean CO2) data for India from NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite and Japan’s Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT through Earth Observation Dashboard.
2) We collected Greenhouse gases (CO2) data and statistics for cities of Mumbai and Delhi from NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite and Japan’s Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT through Earth Observation Dashboard.
3) We collected Air quality data (N02) for India from Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI jointly developed by The Netherlands and ESA) on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite satellite and the Netherlands-Finnish instrument Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite through Earth Observation Dashboard.
4) We collected Air quality data and statistics (N02) for cities of Mumbai and Delhi Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI jointly developed by The Netherlands and ESA) on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite satellite and the Netherlands-Finnish instrument Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite Earth Observation Dashboard.
5) We collected data of Slowdown Proxy Maps from The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in collaboration with the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), is leading this research using innovative methods and high-performance computing. The team is using SAR data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), and the ALOS-2 mission, operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) from Earth Observation Dashboard.
6) We collected Mobility data and Covid-19 data from Earth Observation Dashboard which was jointly developed by NASA, ESA and JAXA.
The data, statistics and images which we got from the above sources were used in our website and demo video. It helped to show the audience, how the air quality was impacted by various other factors like economy, travel, transportation through sources like slowdown proxy maps and mobility data .It became easy for our audience to know the analytics of how the pandemic reshaped our air quality.
Demo / Demonstration Video : https://youtu.be/TFoX4Mc89bU
We have created a website which displays our project. It is a simple website and can be easily integrated into EO Dashboard which would help Earth Observation Dashboard spread public awareness regarding air pollution.
Our Website : https://mrym724.github.io/theproject.github.io/
Source Code : https://github.com/mrYM724/theproject.github.io
We collected data for our project from Earth Observation Dashboard and other sources. Here is the list of the data sources we used from space agencies like NASA, ESA and JAXA :
1) We collected Greenhouse gases (Mean CO2) data and images for India from NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite and Japan’s Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT through Earth Observation Dashboard.
2) We collected Greenhouse gases (CO2) data, images and statistics for cities of Mumbai and Delhi from NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite and Japan’s Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT through Earth Observation Dashboard.
3) We collected Air quality data (N02) and images for India from Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI jointly developed by The Netherlands and ESA) on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite satellite and the Netherlands-Finnish instrument Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite through Earth Observation Dashboard.
4) We collected Air quality data and statistics (N02) and images for cities of Mumbai and Delhi Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI jointly developed by The Netherlands and ESA) on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite satellite and the Netherlands-Finnish instrument Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite Earth Observation Dashboard.
5) We collected data and images of Slowdown Proxy Maps from The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in collaboration with the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), is leading this research using innovative methods and high-performance computing. The team is using SAR data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), and the ALOS-2 mission, operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) from Earth Observation Dashboard.
6) We collected Mobility data and Covid-19 data and statistics from Earth Observation Dashboard which was jointly developed by NASA, ESA and JAXA.
1) "WHO declared Corona Virus disease (COVID-19) a pandemic which originated at the city of Wuhan, China."-
2) "Multiple strategies were implemented by the Indian government to handle the current outbreak which include 55 days lockdown throughout the country that started on 24 March 2020." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_lockdown_in_India
3) "On 3rd April people of Jalandhar, Punjab, a state in Northern India could see a clear glimpse of the Himalayas, which was approximately 200 km away from them. Residents of Jalandhar had told that they have not seen the Himalayan ranges for around the 30 past years." - https://www.hindustantimes.com/it-s-viral/mountain-range-in-himachal-pradesh-visible-from-jalandhar-in-punjab-see-pics/story-i8WTNfT9nAl8k7gp5TJTGI.html
4) "India is ranked at 179th position out of 180 countries in Air quality by Yale University." - https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2020/component/air
5) Delhi and Mumbai are one of the most polluted cities in the world. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution_in_Delhi , https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mum-ranks-5th-in-annual-deaths-due-to-air-pollution-global-study/articleshow/81099733.cms
#StorytellingintheCOVID-19Era #visualstorytelling
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.