Healthy Space| A One Health Approach
A One Health Approach
An interactive platform to raise awareness of health issues from air pollution and UV radiation
Summary
Due to urban growth and industrial development based on fossil fuels, air pollution has been increasing. Air quality has been compromised which represents a risk to human health [1]. The risk increases when people are overexposed to ultraviolet radiation. We consider two subjects under study, first air pollution and secondly ultraviolet radiation. It is important to build information means to socialice these two subjects and their risks for humans. The awareness of these issues are the first step for their prevention. That's why we designed an user friendly web page that implements data collected from space agencies and health organizations aiming to be easily socialized on interactive maps.
How We Addressed This Challenge
The depletion of air quality can occur due to natural or anthropogenic causes, generating negative effects not only on human health, but also on ecosystems.The causes that today have a greater negative effect and that have been increasing are anthropogenic since contribute to the atmosphere pollutants such as: carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen monoxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), tropospheric ozone (O3), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and particles of very different sizes and composition (metals, inorganic compounds, persistent organic compounds, volatile organic compounds). The size of the particulate material determines the potential damage to health, representing a greater danger those that are smaller than 10 μm in diameter, since they easily pass into the respiratory system, and those smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter than the alveolus pulmonary pass into the blood and can affect all organs, tissues and cells of the body[1]. According to data from the United States environmental agency there is a relationship between the exposure to particle pollution and a variety of health problems such as premature death people with heart and lung diseases, aggravated asthma, reduced lung function, among others[2].
Another major factor affecting human health is the ultraviolet radiation which reaches to the earth's surface and is made up mostly of UVA rays, with a small part of UVB rays [3]. These levels vary according to latitude, cloud cover, the thickness of the ozone layer and other variables. The deterioration of the ozone layer caused by atmospheric pollution allows a greater passage of UVA and UVB rays to the earth's surface. [4]. In humans, the prolonged exposure to such radiation can cause acute and chronic effects on the health of the skin, eyes and the immune system. These effects include two major health problems that are: skin cancers and cataracts, which in many cases could have been prevented or delayed. Hence the importance of promoting communication channels that allow obtaining information about the conditions of air quality and UV radiation so that people can take the necessary precautions and avoid the health problems that these generate in humans.[3]
There are different sources of information about air quality and UV radiation for specialized audiences. Our project aims to reach a non-specialized target audience through the development of a web page that will allow the user to easily understand through infographics and interactive graphics information about the levels of atmospheric pollution, ultraviolet radiation and the health problems that these cause in human beings with the purpose of raising awareness for people to take actions that help reduce the conditions caused by these phenomena.
How We Developed This Project
The health issues caused by air pollution and UV rays are conditions that can be prevented through the knowledge and awareness of these. We chose an educational and informative approach because we believe in the impact of educating people about their health, especially when it is distributed in a conspicuous and explicit way to those who consume it.
Front-End Component: It will be developed with the framework ReactJS which uses JavaScript and XML. These allows us to define all the logic interaction that the platform will have directly with the user. This component will allow the user to access the different application services through HTTP requests. For example: when entering the user's interest location, he will be able to obtain information related to the levels of air pollution and UV rays in the area, in addition to prevention recommendations according to the results obtained.
Back-End Component: This component will be in charge of the communications with the Google Engine API, the processing of the API response, and the proper delivering to the front-end component. It will be developed with the Python Flask Framework.
The link to the repository where the script structure that will be adapted to python is found in the following link: https://github.com/Darcy96/HealthySpace
Google-Engine component: This is a Google cloud service that allows users to view and analyze satellite images of our planet. It will be used to obtain the data related to air pollution and UV rays as mentioned above. These will be shown to the user in a processed way.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
The data used comes from Google Earth Engine. This data can be found using Google Earth Engine API to search the dataset related to the chemical compound of our study case, thereby generating the maps that denote the presence of these compounds in the atmosphere.
Google Earth Engine can be found on the following address: https://code.earthengine.google.com.
These generated maps are the most important to understand the behavior of these chemical compounds with respect to air pollution as well as UV radiation.
Project Demo
Slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ryqvHvna4F5Oujs8bGqAXo7ZRGBpBtb/view?usp=sharing
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PlNycGpdWZ30fvxp_F9yfxBcky9go9LN/view?usp=sharing
Web page: https://sites.google.com/view/healthyspace/home
Project Code
Data & Resources
[1] J. Martí Valls, «Efectos de la calidad del aire sobre la salud,» FMC - Formación Médica Continuada en Atención Primaria, vol. 24, nº 9, pp. 511-514, 2017.
[2]"Efectos del material particulado (PM) sobre la salud y el medioambiente | US EPA", US EPA,2018.[Online].Available:https://espanol.epa.gov/espanol/efectos-del-material-particulado-pm-sobre-la-salud-y-el-medioambiente.
[3] Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), Organización Meteorológica Mundial (OMM), (ICNIRP) y (PNUMA), «WHO,» 2002. [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/uv/publications/globalindex/es/.
[4]"Efectos del material particulado (PM) sobre la salud y el medioambiente | US EPA", US EPA,2018.[Online].Available:https://espanol.epa.gov/espanol/efectos-del-material-particulado-pm-sobre-la-salud-y-el-medioambiente.”
Web API
Gorelick, N., Hancher, M., Dixon, M., Ilyushchenko, S., Thau, D., & Moore, R. (2017). Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone. Remote Sensing of Environment.