Awards & Nominations
TnE has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Storytelling in the COVID-19 Era
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.
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacted the Global Environment
Summary
This project is a video covering the global benefits and detriments that the COVID-19 lockdowns have had on the environment. One of the main takeaways is that the state of air and water quality has improved because of the lockdowns, but if nothing is done in the future, it will decline as though the lockdowns never occurred. The other takeaway is that medical waste has increased significantly as a result of the pandemic, and has actually contributed to water pollution, but will most likely decrease once the number of COVID-19 cases drops.
How I Addressed This Challenge
The video provides a broad overview of how air and water pollution emitted from multiple sources has changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the environmental effects of the huge rise in hospital activity that has stemmed from the virus. It would be a useful source of information for anyone looking for a general understanding of how the lockdowns have impacted the environment well or badly, and it serves as a message that although the pandemic is a respite from the pollution issues plaguing the world, it is by no means an excuse for humanity to quit trying to save the planet.
How I Developed This Project
This challenge was chosen because it was the most familiar subject to us, and was best suited to our area of knowledge. The approach was chosen to be a video as we thought it would be the most engaging and interesting to see. For development, a script was first written up, taking the majority of the given 6 days. For the first few days (before the challenge chat channels were accessible), we did not know how long our video should be, so we went on the safe side with the script and wrote much more than necessary. Afterward, the script was refined to meet the time requirements and be as clear as possible, and the making of the actual video started. The editing software used to create the video was called VideoPad, and while it worked well for the most part, sending work within our team was very difficult as the recipient would have to have access to each individual file in the video if they wanted to open it, which made for many technical issues. Asides from the minor obstacles, the project went smoothly.
How I Used Space Agency Data in This Project
Space agency data was taken from the NASA OMI tab of the Air Quality category on the EO Dashboard as well as the CO2 difference tab on the NASA COVID-19 Dashboard. Pictures were taken of the NO2 and CO2 concentrations in the world at different times during the pandemic, from the two sources respectively. They were used to outline the improvement and eventual decline of global air quality throughout the lockdown periods of the pandemic.
Project Demo
Since the project is a video, here is the full clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdkrNfZtcvk
Earth Observing Dashboard Integration
As a youtube video file, the project could be integrated via HTML code into the EO Dashboard website.
This code could be used:
<html>
<body>
<iframe width="_____" height="_____" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OdkrNfZtcvk"
title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write;
encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</body>
</html>
Data & Resources
Rume, Tanjena, and S.M. Didar-Ul Islam. “Environmental Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic and Potential Strategies of Sustainability.” Heliyon, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 17 Sept. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7498239/#bib73.
Plumer, Brad, and Nadja Popovich. “Emissions Are Surging Back as Countries and States Reopen.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/17/climate/virus-emissions-reopening.html.
Earth Observing Dashboard: (NASA OMI)
NASA COVID-19 Dashboard: (Global CO2 Difference)
YouTube Clips:
RTÉ News
Channel 4 News
Stericycle
Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.