Onilé

Salvador, Bahia State | Space for Change

Elementary

High-Level Project Summary

Elementary is a platform that connects communities, civil society, researchers, NGOs, public agencies, startups, political and social agents from all over the world, so together, minimize environmental impacts caused by climate change and promote environmental justice. In Elementary we change the relationship among these groups so that no individual or community is out, promoting to the most vulnerable a space to spread around their needs and make safe changes to prevent and reduce many environmental impacts, besides supervising and reporting the lack of public policies to relieve the effects of climate change.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zCAf8-muiU

Link to Final Project

https://instagram.com/onile.elementary?utm_medium=copy_link

Detailed Project Description

The environmental impacts caused by climate changes affect more and a bigger number of people who find themselves in conditions of vulnerability. Reduce this condition wouldn’t be trying to lower environmental risks, since at this point it would be impossible, but actually minimize effects of a possible disaster through getting to know the area and the installation of suitable devices to overcome and/or avoid the danger of impact caused by an extreme event, such as floods, landslides, fires and heat waves. Elementary is a platform of connection among people to debate, think, solve and track results of environmental impacts that can be felt in the whole world - mainly in areas where the socioeconomic vulnerability makes people even more exposed to the danger of the impacts caused by climate changes.

In the platform menu, the natural elements of the earth system (Water, Fire, Air and Earth) represent the environmental problems in different forms: the Water element concerns water supply, sanitation, floods, among other problems; the Fire element is mainly related to fires; the Air element is related to air pollution, power generation, heat waves, etc; the Earth element then, relates to problems about landslides, deforestation, among others.

The user navigates among the four elements to access the information they look for, according to their needs. For those who use the platform to learn about the environmental situation in the place where they live, there is an interactive map that indicates the main environmental risks present in the area, showing the degree of risk and climate change forecasts for the next 100 years and its long-term impacts, using the geo-referenced location system. Therefore, the user will be able to have a guide to the type of help they need to look for in the forums.

Login is free for nonprofit organizations that represent marginalized communities and civil society. In these cases, the access to the platform will be simpler, allowing the user to participate in forums, events and collaboration groups, besides the possibility of anonymously reporting environmental crimes or the imminent risk of natural disaster. In its free version, users can also repost in their Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin personal accounts, apart from sharing the post access link via message on Whatsapp. Profiles will have basic user information such as name, age, location, profession and areas of interest.

Users can also connect with each other and create groups, forums, witness a report, see the events they participate in or even chat privately with other users. In communities without access to computers, cell phones and internet, Elementary promotes equipment donations and training in partnership with local leaders.

The monetization of the platform is based on the usage plans offered to the other agents that make the Elementary network: NGOs, public agencies, startups and political agents. For these users, the platform will allow the creation of self-managed forums, besides offering more space to present scientifically referenced information and to call volunteers. With paid profiles, these agents will also be able to identify how many and which profiles viewed the page and/or interacted with the posts.

In a globalized world, it is necessary to find new ways to break physical and geographic boundaries to move people, products and information. Elementary is a wide-ranging platform, and its main benefit concerns giving voice and information to people and communities in environmental and socioeconomic vulnerability - the most who suffer with the impacts of environmental degradation, to expose their difficulties, ideas, criticisms and needs by using text, videos and images within the forums or in posts to get help and mobilize others (inside or outside their community), pressing on the political class in search of solutions to structural, environmental and socioeconomic problems. The platform is a tool that promotes a change of perspective, encourages and collaborates with the culture of perception of environmental risks, promotes an environment for discussion and systematization of information that encourages actions in the fight for environmental justice, sensitizing and mobilizing individuals to the search for resilience.

In addition to reaching vulnerable communities, the data generated on the platform can be used by other researchers interested in environmental issues, promoting interaction and dissemination of scientific research results in different parts of the world.

The platform expands the quantity and quality of data available on global climate change and its impacts on the environment and society around the world. Here, individuals will have access to information about the environmental problems they may face and to what degree, helping the monitoring and inspection of actions to reduce impacts promoted by the governmental spheres. Non-governmental organizations and institutions will be able to use the data to create tools to fight for environmental justice along with community agents. In addition, the data draw attention to the demands of populations, creating ways for political agents to improve their actions and develop policies to prevent and mitigate climate impacts. Used by researchers, the data produced on the Elementary platform promote interaction and dissemination of scientific research results in different parts of the world.

To plan and elaborate the idea behind Elementary, the main research platforms were used, such as Google and Google Academic, whose search results made it possible to find the data generated by NASA satellites, besides to expand the understanding of the problem presented in the challenge. The animation displayed in the project's presentation pitch was produced using Toon Boom Harmony software.

As it is a platform linked to the environment, which will feature constant changes and innovations, Elementary demands a database that does not present obstacles to the growth of information, making its performance easier. The platform elements were developed in JavaScript language, using The React.JS framework for Web Front-end development, The Nest.JS framework for Back-end development and The ReactNative framework for Mobile development, in an unstructured database as Mongo.db. Here, Elementary has a solid language that accepts the use of TypeScript

Elementary is committed to primarily three 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 13 - Climate Action; Goal 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; Goal 17 - Partnerships for the Goals.

Space Agency Data

The dataset that will be used by Elementary to produce their interative maps, was collected by environmental monitoring satélites that register informations off ires, floods, deforestations, climate change, forecast of physical phenomena and others, as the table below describer:

The formulation of the interactive map was inspired by the Atlas IPCC AR6, which presentes the most updated understanding of the climate Science and climate change. The Atlas put together the latest advances in climate Science and combine several lines of paleoclimatic evidences, observations and understanding of the processa at global, regional and local level.

Hackathon Journey

We consider the experience on Space Apps intense and enriching as we get to know amazing people on our team, those that we are taking to future adventures, and also to get close to a problem that directly affects us: the climate changes and its effects on the most vulnerable communities.

We learned how complex and multidisciplinary Environmental Justice is and the urgency to give voice to the most vulnerable communities: the least to pollute, but the most who suffer with the consequences of climate changes, pollution and natural disasters. It was impossible not to think about a solution that could embrace the maximum number of actors and communities in vulnerability.

That’s why we have created Elementary aiming to offer space to these ones to create their own agendas and demands for the responsible agencies and all other agents interested and willing to contribute.

The team had to work until late night to be able to build a detailed written project and summarize it effectively and clearly in the 30-second pitch. As everyone was engaged to deliver the best solution to the challenge, the activities happened lightly and soft.

We would like to thank our mentors who guided us and believed on the proposal, specially Carolinna Amorim, who was our first contact with the mentors and who made us believe that the idea was very interesting indeed.