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.
In March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic. Various stages of isolation and lockdown lead to profound and unusual environmental impacts such as clearer waterways in Venice, animals invading the streets of cities, and renewable energy found its new role. As a whole, globally air quality improved in periods of lockdown, and although world crops in some ways was favourable, overall the food supply was volatile. Human race was impacted by social distancing requirements and travel restrictions, yet as a nation we grew closer, through online platforms and the slow down of life. This project captures the different perspectives of the impact of COVID 19.
The objective of this project was to tell a story of how COVID 19 impacted the world, using Earth Observation Data and other complementary data.
We created a 'trailer' to tell the story visually, as we believe the full story has not yet been told and a 'greater film is yet to come'. With an adrenaline rising background music, it highlights the emotional drama and uncertainty of what the future brings. However, it is with certainty that lessons can be learnt during this pandemic, one of which is how to perceive what is unfolding right in front of us, which can similarly be reviewed as a glass half full half empty scenario, also reflecting the sense of irony of the good and bad in this new way of living.
It is important to shed light on this current situation, with different outlooks and an open mind for interpretation for posterity and mental health.
We decided to take part in this challenge as we felt comfortable in sharing our own personal experience. Having been previously subject to lockdown and currently serving further stay at home orders, we realise the dramatic impact COVID 19 has on our own lives.
We aimed to tell the story simply as it unfolded with available media data and in addition building on this using the Earth Observation Data, which was an exciting new insight.
Apple iMovie and Microsoft PowerPoint were used to make this movie trailer, which allowed us to become more familiar with these software platforms.
Using the space agency data gave us the freedom to go beyond and explore the detailed impacts of COVID 19 in a global sense through access to NASA, ESA and JAXA data, enabling us to gain a broader view of the long term effects of the decreased human activity, and use this data directly in our project.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PIScwUF7hg6CCDhtb3s5w-9iTVUfTvSf/view?usp=sharing
Coding was not applicable in our project, however our trailer video can be reviewed using the link above.
The Earth Observational Dashboard (https://eodashboard.org/) provided a great source of information regarding world air quality in particular tropospheric NO2 level distribution. Further, world cropped area insights were gained regarding food supply. Specific to human race, the increased number of cases throughout this pandemic could be observed subject to different government restrictions.
Further, the following references were consulted in the making of this video clip:
#COVID19, #pandemic, #AirQuality, #WaterQuality, #WorldCrops, #HumanRace, #Storytelling, #TheImpactOfCovid19, #CovidCases, #CovidEnvironmentalImpacts
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.