Urbanus

Salvador, Bahia State | Drones and Satellites for Urban Development

Urban Interaction System

High-Level Project Summary

URBANIS is a software that integrated with Google Earth seeks a horizontal urban development with the community. Our program relies on NASA satellites and drones to map more inaccurate data areas. With an accessible and easy-to-use interface, citizens and government will have practical and effective access to information related to urban needs, such as health, education, leisure, etc. In addition, the system also has the possibility of being fed with data provided by the population itself, which will be able to inform the government more details of these needs. Thus, URBANIS offers the possibility of integration and contribution between residents and those responsible for the community.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kAIRApl15v2UlknaRV8oSTnbikBvVkex/view

Detailed Project Description

It is known that urbanization process is unequal among countries, states, cities and even between neighborhoods in the same place. This unequal process causes an unfair society. For example, according to 2017 data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), four out of ten cities have no sewage service in the country. In order to reduce these urban problems, Urban Interaction System (URBANIS) seeks a more direct interaction between government and community, with focus on the needy community, which suffers the most from the differentiation of urbanization processes.

So, how to solve this problem of inequality among the most forgotten? URBANIS makes interactive navigation, through maps, a tool available to the population, who will have it as an aid to participate more actively in the politics of their region, as it will be easy to handle and access. According to data released by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), in Brazil, the participation of voters between 16 and 17 years old was the lowest in the last 30 years, revealing a lack of interest on the part of young people in matters of public policy. Our dynamic system will encourage good development practices and fight against differences. Accessibility and diffusion are the keywords for us!

The software will work in an integrated way with Google Earth and Maps, with NASA satellites (Landsat), together with drones, allowing a precise mapping of difficult to access areas with high definition and resolution images, generating detailed information of, for example, lighting, public education and health, basic sanitation, presence or absence of leisure areas, areas of instability on slopes and more. To increase and maintain this information updated, URBANIS also has a vast database, such as the register of places and services available in the area, made available by Google Earth and Maps, and also by the government and population. Being essential direct community participation.

Thus, after this sum and enrichment of information and details, the community will be able to use the tools available to access their neighborhood or area of interest on the map. When selecting the desired area, a list will be made available with all urban development services available in the area, in a quantified form (number of schools, squares, hospitals, bus stops, etc.). For a better experience with the interface, the user will have search filters, optimizing their search. Another tool will be the option of signaling or complaining about problems or instabilities that happen in your neighborhood, making the government see these complaints, and facilitating communication, enabling the gradual improvement of the signaled areas.

The objective of this software is to horizontalize and bring a fairer urban development to anyone who faces difficulties in the urbanization process. It is not a software with isolated functions, its function will be specific in cities, but it can be used in any area of the world, in different stages of development. Its focus is to bring an app with organized information about the city, its population and the existing difficulties, so that government officials can analyze and make the appropriate changes to reduce these urban differences and allow the population to become more and more part of the development policy.

Space Agency Data

In inspiration for the project, we based ourselves on the interface and method of operation of Google Earth and Google Maps, since they both use NASA satellites for mapping. Accessibility and ease of handling them were also important factors to improve the system for our project, as within our idea of solution and diffusion, such characteristics are crucial for the population's use. The most important examples are map navigation speed, simplicity in the user interface and the data storage features that are made available by selecting in the image.

Thinking about the tools to aid the system, as used in Google Earth, we have Landsat, a series of launched satellites that have the objective of recording and photographing the entire terrestrial surface.

Finally, the interactive NASA Worldview interface was also used, which captures images of the Earth at night to inspire and develop tools for the project, such as the nightly mapping of areas and identification of precarious points of public lighting.

Hackathon Journey

As a team, the experience was incredible, because regardless of the final result, it served as a learning experience, especially on subjects that did not seem accessible. We learned the importance of thinking about technological resources to solve many problems on Earth, and trying to make them more accessible to all inhabitants. For the development of the project, the best way for the population to benefit from the technologies available by NASA and other companies were thought of, not only acting for people, but also giving the population the opportunity to use the tools. As a problem we had the distance due to isolation, resulting from the pandemic, as access to the internet was not always possible for some member. The best way to solve this problem was the persistence in focusing on the project and trusting each other to elaborate your delegated part and then add it up. Finally, we would like to thank all the creators and collaborators of the event, and especially Professor Isabel Sartori, who, in addition to introducing us to the marathon, motivated us to participate.