High-Level Project Summary
We developed a prototype for a mobile application named WorldUnited, which uses information from NASA Earth Observations and EJ Atlas to identify regions affected by natural disasters and climate change, where environmental injustice occurs. The main goal of the application is to allow people to organize different types of charity and educational events, to help and educate those in need. Such educational events could include educating the people living in highly polluted areas about the importance of selecting rubbish, recycling, using less plastic, renewable sources of energy etc. It also allows people who are affected to report a problem they are faced with.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
We used photoshop to develop the prototype of the app. It enables people living in those areas to report a problem such as extreme weather conditions, air pollution, lack of resources or natural disasters
It informs people from all over the world about ongoing events where they can volunteer or donate to help those in need. Such events could include educational events for the people affected, in order to teach them more about their rights and different ways to achieve them. Donations for the people affected by natural disasters as a consequence of environmental injustice
could include resources such as (money, clean water, clothes, food).
Volunteering could take place in educational events as well as events dedicated for cleaning the polluted environment. It could also include physical assistance in natural disasters if needed.
People around the world who donate/volunteer will also have the ability to see the progress of the communities they donate to available on the app feed which will regularly be updated.
Space Agency Data
We used data from NASA Earth observations, as well as data from EJ Atlas to locate the regions where environmental injustice occurs. It inspired us to locate the communities facing environmental injustice and to also inform other people with the help of the application.
Hackathon Journey
When we were exploring the challenges, it was the first time that we had heard of the term environmental injustice, which was weird considering we have witnessed plenty of it in our surroundings. We instantly agreed that we want to do something about it and decided to make it our project. After some research, we found that this complex problem has no easy solution, that there are too many factors out of our control, that it would take years to change the system, which is at the core of this problem. Yet we could not stand not doing anything about it. So we decided we should try to help the victims of environmental injustice, and that is precisely what we hope our app will achieve. We are thrilled that, aside from this being a very interesting and fun experience, it led to us potentially helping so many people in need.
The most difficult part of this was planning everything out, simply because we wanted to achieve so much in such little time. However, we have come very far, especially with the great encouragement of our wonderful mentor Slavica Taseva. We hope to continue developing this concept and changing the world for the better.
References
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOD_LSTAD_M
https://terra.nasa.gov/about/terra-instruments/mopitt
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOP_CO_M
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/139/video-global-warming-from-1880-to-2020/
https://climate.nasa.gov/interactives/climate-time-machine
https://ejatlas.org/
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.