access to EnVironmental Analytics for Developing countriEs (EVADE)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Physics
Abstract
This project builds on STFC and NERC investments into the Community Intercomparison Suite to develop a demonstration of an easy-to-use web portal providing access to environmental analytics of "big" Earth System data to users and scientists in developing countries (maximising co-benefits for the UK scientific and commercial applications).
Planned Impact
The anticipated impacts are two-fold. Firstly, we hope to demonstrate that with the large spatial coverage provided by the 'big' Earth Systems observations systems being incorporated more accurate attribution of air pollution can be obtained. Thus policy decisions on planning and management of ODA-eligble mega-cities can be better informed. Secondly, by combining these large scale data sources with local networks it is hoped more accurate, timely predictions of local air-pollution could be made, potentially saving lives.
This project has been specifically developed around the needs of (in the demonstration phase) air-pollution officials from Official Development Assistance (ODA) eligible countries. User engagement is a dedicated task of the project and will maximise the use of the environmental analytics platform to users in developing countries.
Specifically, we will engage with the beneficiaries though the following tasks:
1) Identify, contact and survey key user communities in developing countries, such as air pollution officials from local environmental protection agencies
2) Invite a small number of select users to a user requirements workshop, which we will use to design the user interfaces of the analytics platform
3) Hold a project close-down meeting to demonstrate the platform, discuss lessons learnt and determine opportunities for future GCRF projects
This project has been specifically developed around the needs of (in the demonstration phase) air-pollution officials from Official Development Assistance (ODA) eligible countries. User engagement is a dedicated task of the project and will maximise the use of the environmental analytics platform to users in developing countries.
Specifically, we will engage with the beneficiaries though the following tasks:
1) Identify, contact and survey key user communities in developing countries, such as air pollution officials from local environmental protection agencies
2) Invite a small number of select users to a user requirements workshop, which we will use to design the user interfaces of the analytics platform
3) Hold a project close-down meeting to demonstrate the platform, discuss lessons learnt and determine opportunities for future GCRF projects
Publications
Watson-Parris D
(2019)
In-situ constraints on the vertical distribution of global aerosol
Watson-Parris D
(2018)
On the Limits of CALIOP for Constraining Modeled Free Tropospheric Aerosol
in Geophysical Research Letters
Watson-Parris D
(2019)
In situ constraints on the vertical distribution of global aerosol
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
| Description | According to the World Health Organisation "Ambient (outdoor air pollution) in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012", of which "some 88% of those premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries" [WHO Fact sheet 313, 2014]. By providing developing countries with the tools to prepare and analyse high resolution EO datasets relating to air-quality, a full plaform developed from this demonstration project would enables local and regional policy makers to make better informed decisions regarding agricultrual policy and investments in housing and public transport. Longer term records of more than a decade also allow for evidence based retrospective assesments of previous policies. These datasets can also form the basis for both short and long-term forecasts of air quality, in extreme cases allowing warnings to be issued when severe pollution is expected. Our platform provides easy access to 518Gb of satellite EO data along with powerful analysis tools utilising over 1 petaflop of processing power. |
| Exploitation Route | This platform was developed as a scoping project for a potential large-scale GCRF project. |
| Sectors | Environment |
| Description | Working internationally through the GCRF has enabled us to engage directly with the users in developing countries, improving the product and helping allowing us to identify opportunities for further collaboration. Partnering with CEDA has also ensured valuable cross-fertilization of ideas between world leading research and data analysis institutions. For example, a number of achitectural decisions made by CEDA for a new remote computing protocol were influenced through the development of this platform. The platform itself is also beneficial to UK based researchers by lowering the barriers to entry for working with these important datasets and accelerating their data processing pipelines. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Title | CIS-ESP |
| Description | We have developed a novel web platform to enable the easy access, exploration and analysis of large EO datasets in the context of air quality assessments. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Being able to explore and analyse large Earth Observation (EO) datasets through a web portal without requiring large local data processing systems enables scientists and air-quality experts from ODA countries make use of valuable datasets which would otherwise not be able to utilise. |
| URL | http://192.171.139.92 |
| Description | School outreach talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | School outreach talk at St Barnabas Primary School on Earth Observations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | School science fair |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Participation in Science Fair at Wolvercote Primary School. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |