High-Level Project Summary
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHAB) have caused several problems in freshwater in all World, due to their cyanotoxins. In the Semiarid region, cyanoHAB are related to diseases, deaths, and malformations on people/animals by water consumption, however, the public policies do not consider the information spread of the exposure risks. Then, we propose the CyanoAlert System, a website with educative information, maps, and SMS alerts on cyanoHAB level and useful care practices. We use Sentinel 2 and 3 images (ESA) to feed the system, and provide weekly monitoring. We propose the novel in the detection method, and output offered.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
The Problem
People who live in arid and semiarid regions suffer from to access treated water and sanitation. Water pollution associated with climatic conditions through drought periods favors cyanoHABs, capable of producing cyanotoxins with implications for human and animal health.
Cyanotoxin can be accumulated into aquatic products via contaminated feeds, direct contact with contaminated water (living environment), and biomagnification through the food web. Plants are not usually killed by the environmentally relevant concentration, but their growth and crop yields are affected, thus humans are exposed to cyanotoxin by drink water, inhalation, dermal contact, and foods.
When people are exposed to cyanotoxins, adverse health effects can range from a mild rash to serious illness or, in some circumstances, death. Acute illnesses caused by short-term exposure to cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins during recreational activities include hay fever-like symptoms, skin rashes, respiratory and gastrointestinal distress. Chronic exposure to low levels of cyanotoxin in drinking water or other products was associated with potential liver and kidney damage, cancer, and neurologic problems. In the Brazilian semiarid region, the death of about 150 people, was associated with exposure to cyanotoxin. Recently, brain malformation (microcephaly) in children, were too associated with chronic consumption of cyanotoxin, in levels 300 times lower than recommended by WHO.
According to WHO/UNICE, in 2017, 144 million people collecting water directly from surface water to consumption. Unfortunately, the public policies do not consider the information spread of the exposure risks to the population, especially those who live in marginalized zones. Data of Brazilian program VIGIAGUA pointed that 71% of monitoring reservoirs in the Semiarid region have cyanoHAB and cyanotoxin; 37% of treated water distributed for vulnerable populations without water access have cyanotoxin. Practices of animal watering, aquaculture, and agriculture are too compromised, so inform the population about the risks and practices to care are imperative.
What exactly does it do?
The website aggregates a set of educative information on cyanoHAB to sensibilize the population. It is also possible to check the water reservoirs' status throughout visual maps. Users can subscribe to receive SMS alerts on cyanoHAB levels in the water supply reservoir around their residences joint useful care practices. The novel we performed is the detection method using integrated Chlorophyll-a absorption and densities/biovolume of cyanoHAB, and the output offered in the level of cyanoHAB concentration, considering the World Health Organization recommendations (Level 1 density < 20k cyanoCell/mL; Level 2 density 20-50k cyanoCell/mL; Level 1 density > 50k cyanoCell/mL).
How does it work?
(i) the population access and signs up on the platform to receive the SMS alerts, informing name, residence zip-coding, and cellphone number. (ii) the satellite-based information on cyanoHAB level is computed using algorithms. (iii) weekly messages are sent to the subscribed users on the water reservoir’s status and care procedures. If detected high level of cyanoHAB in the reservoir (that supplies the users’ residences), the system sends an additional SMS to the user as an alert, supplied with information and care procedures.
Here are examples of SMS alert sent to the user:
What benefits does it have?
(i) empowering the marginalized population with free-charge and easy understanding information on cyanoHAB occurrences. (ii) possibility for population charges government decision-making and water agencies to be alert and improve the water quality treatment. (iii) support the promotion of equitable, good health and well-being, which are into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations (UN),
What do you achieve?
(i) a new methodology to cyanoHAB alert-system derived from remotely-sensed data set processing; (ii) geospatial data helping to identify vulnerable populations that have higher exposure to potential diseases.
WHAT TOOLS, HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, CODE DID YOU USE TO DEVELOP YOUR PROJECT
List:
-Earth Engine API
-Java Script
-Google Sites
-Google Drive (docs, slides, and forms)
-Powtoon
Our system is divided into 3 main parts: (i) the informative webpage with subscription section for users, (ii) the CyanoAlert detection and monitoring system, and (iii) the SMS for the automated text message sending. We performed the 1st and 2nd during the hackathon and propose the prototype for the 3rd.
To develop (i), we used Google sites environment (https://sites.google.com/new). For (ii), the coding efforts were performed through the JavaScript API of the Google Earth Engine platform (https://earthengine.google.com/). And, for (iii) we propose a system to collect and store the user’s address and associate it with supply reservoirs satellite-based cyanoHAb information, to send automatically SMS to the subscribed users, through a system such MessageDesk (https://messagedesk.com/resources/guides/automation/). To design our video pitch, we use Powtoon environment.
Space Agency Data
We used satellite images from Sentinel 3 OLCI (bands 8, 10, and 11) and Sentinel 2 MSI (bands 3 and 8) in two efforts: (i) water extent detection using Sentinel 2 and (ii) Cyanobacteria Index (CI) computation to cyanoHAB automatic detection. Details on CI are presented in Mishra et al. (2019) and Wynne et al. (2008).
Our inspiration and motivation for the satellite choice was the high temporal resolution (~2 days) and adequate spectral band to cyanoHAB detection offered by Sentinel 3, which makes it possible to develop an alert system with a high update rate. And the possibility to integrate the Sentinel 2 water extent-derived with approximated or similar dates to support the water mapping.
Hackathon Journey
The hackathon journey was an amazing moment to exercise critical thinking, to raise scientific knowledge, to practice coding in high intensity and velocity, and surely to swimming in a pure and fantastic spatial sciences universe to answer great Global Challenges proposed by NASA.
Our main inspiration to choose the “Space for Change” challenge was our won country: Brazil. Here, there is a drastic environmental crisis. Joint Amazon deforestation, loss of biodiversity, floodings, and droughts, our quality water has been also impacted over the last years. Therefore, it is time for “spreading information on water security”.
Regarding our route, we start with content immersion to support our discussions to decide the stakeholder, main technical lacks, and every detail related to the solution design, and also to democratize the decisions. We were logged full-time in a video call. Every detail was discussed along time and all the setbacks related to the video editor, photoshop, coding, reading, and write were successfully solved.
And surely, we would like to thank all the spatial agencies initiatives that aim to promote scientific development. Our team is formed by students, professors, researchers, and tech enthusiasts. Then, we have a lot to thank you all for this space to show you our solutions!
References
Data set source:
Sentinel 3 and 2 via Google cloud services:
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/sentinel-data-access
https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/COPERNICUS_S3_OLCI
https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/sentinel-2
Text references:
Carmichael, W W et al. “Human fatalities from cyanobacteria: chemical and biological evidence for cyanotoxins.” Environmental health perspectives vol. 109,7 (2001): 663-8.
Wynne, T. T., et al. "Relating spectral shape to cyanobacterial blooms in the Laurentian Great Lakes." International Journal of Remote Sensing 29.12 (2008): 3665-3672.
Mishra, Sachidananda, et al. "Measurement of cyanobacterial bloom magnitude using satellite remote sensing." Scientific Reports 9.1 (2019): 1-17.
Pedrosa, C. S. G., et al. “The cyanobacterial saxitoxin exacerbates neural cell death and brain malformations induced by Zika virus.” PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 14.3(2020): 1-13
Svirčev, Z., et al. “Global geographical and historical overview of cyanotoxin distribution and cyanobacterial poisonings”. Archives of Toxicology 93 (2019): 2429–2481
Supplementary source
https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/JMP-2019-FINAL-high-res_compressed.pdf
Tags
#water, #health, #esa, #sentinel
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.