School and NASA Aiding Climate action by Kids (SNACK)

An App for school children to build action on climate change by crowd monitoring and reporting annual tree density of their school and neighborhood parks using Google and satellite imagery. 

My solution is a crowd monitoring App that will display tree densities of parks in the city and rank them. Based on their location, youths will be able to find tree densities of the neighborhood and school parks they often go to. They will be able to compare the tree densities of their parks with other parks in the city and find out if more trees should be planted in their area.

Youths will also be able to take up a tutorial on how to calculate tree densities and could help us in updating tree densities of existing parks or calculate tree densities of parks not included in the App.

They will be able to send pictures of trees in their local parks, which would then be added to the App after identifying the tree type. Viewers will be able to see what types of trees, are there in their local parks. 

I will create the WebApp using Python, Plotly, and Dash (licensed for free use by MIT). I will also make use of some external applications such as the I-Tree developed by the USDA Forest Service to calculate tree densities. 

In my neighborhood, some parks have a higher tree density while others have a lower tree density.  Lower tree density means less shade, less appealing for children to play with, and a lesser number of birds and other forms of biodiversity.

Toronto has over 1500 parks to explore of varying tree densities. Increasing tree densities even slightly in all these parks will have a significant overall impact on greenness of the city, urban biodiversity, and pollution control. 

Construction activities in the city, maintenance efforts on trees, and levels of community engagement and involvement are some of the issues which affect tree densities.

Toronto city has a population of 3 million and high car ownership. Having greener parks within the city will improve the lives of everyone. Everyone will have a local green place to visit and which would be home to local biodiversity.

I have participated in many school protests calling for action on climate change. Protests such as "School strike for climate" and "Fridays for Future" have shown that school children understand that climate change is happening, and are concerned about it. 

But we need to do more than that. Everyone needs to take action. That's where my solution will come in. It will provide an opportunity for youths to do something.

My App will empower school kids to take action using tools and services most of them use on daily basis, namely mobile phones and parks.

And they will also attract other youths from their schools and community who can also take action. This will create a big community of youth working collectively to solve climate change issue.

I visited several of the local parks to understand how they are being used by the community.

I have talked about my project (Since physical visits are not possible due to the pandemic) with my friends in school who come from different neighborhoods. 

I served as a mentor of Youth Space Apps that has allowed me to understand the technical skill levels of youths, what programming languages they are most familiar with, and issues they are most passionate about.

Before the pandemic, I used to participate in 10-12 community outreach events each year demonstrating my previous projects or giving workshops and training programs. 

So far I have done 3 things.

First I have visited local school parks to visually get a better idea of how often they are used by youth.

Second I have experimented getting park images from google maps, the Nasa Landsat 8 satellites and the dove satellites from Planet Labs. I found out the Planet Labs dove satellites gave the best resolution images of 3 meters.

Third I have used I-Tree Canopy to find the tree density of 8 local school parks using the images i got from the satellites. I have ranked those schools to get a better idea on the comparison between tree density in those parks.

My solution will be powered by open data and an open-source language: Python. Python programming will be used to write the code for WebApp. MIT-licensed Plot and Dash would be used to create interactive graphics and interactive dashboards.

The I-Tree App which I will use for calculating tree density is produced by USDA Forest Services and is free for use to all. The imagery made available through Google Maps can be used for calculating tree density which would open the App to all users.

I will make the source code available on my GitHub account so that youths in other places can replicate the App. I will also create a free online tutorial using Jupyter Notebooks to train other youths. 

My App is not yet ready so there are no users of the service.

But once it is ready, in the first year, I plan to cover 10-15 neighborhood parks. This means users of all these parks will be able to view the annual tree density of their parks.

I plan to bring out the "State of Local Parks of Toronto" every year based on the tree density data I am able to gather through my App. It would be a simple report backed with data and evidence. It will also include a ranking of the high tree density parks and neighborhoods.

Small parks within the cities are very useful but are often overlooked by city officials. Their focus is largely on a few bigger parks or natural areas outside the city. 

However, for school kids, the smaller local parks which they can go to on their own are very important. 

Having an annual "State of Local Parks of Toronto" would ensure that local parks continue to get the attention they deserve from government officials. Communities in different neighborhoods can put pressure on local government officials based on the findings of this report to improve tree densities in their areas.

I will measure my progress through the number of parks included in my App. For the first year, I may only have 10 -15 local parks included in the App as it would require making visits to the parks to check how accurately I have been able to calculate the tree densities of these parks using Google and satellite imagery.

Once I am confident in my methodology and the test results I am getting from the local parks, I will try to expand to parks farther away.

Another way to measure progress would be how many people are using the App, and how many people are contributing new tree density to the App.

At the end of each year, I will be able to calculate the tree density of all the parks included in my App. Over time I will be able to determine if tree density in my neighborhood is growing and leading to the greening of the city which is good for the climate and urban biodiversity.

Pandemic measures mean schools are still happening online in Toronto. It makes it difficult to connect face to face with other kids or participate in community events, hackathons, or after-school clubs. 

It also makes it difficult to get mentor support from teachers or staff members running after school clubs.

Arushi Nath: I am good at space technologies, maths, building sensor-driven projects, and coding in Python. I have experience in projects on water quality measurements as well as making measurements on data collected from space. I plan to apply all my skills to the project. I have participated in over 30 hackathons winning many of them - so working on new and challenging projects is not new for me. I participated in my first hackathon when I was only 5 years old. In 2017 I was the winner of the Canadian SpaceApps Challenge for my project that used Canadian Satellite data "RadarSat-2". I was invited to present my project at the Canadian Space Agency and meet the Canadian Astronauts. https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/...

In 2020 I won the NASA SpaceApps COVID-19 Challenge from amongst 15,000 people in 150 countries for my project "The Masked Scales" on quantifying the impacts of the Pandemic on our local environment. https://covid19.spaceappschall...

My project has been featured by NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/n... 

1. Planet Labs: I wrote to the Manager of Science Programs at Planet Labs about the project. I was given access to some high-resolution images for my city (Toronto) which I was able to use to calculate tree densities. I hope to continue collaborating with them over this project.

2. Global Innovation Field Trip (GIFT): https://innovationworld.org/ GIFT brings together motivated youths and innovators from all over the world to present their innovations. I have given seven presentations so far in their events and has allowed me to share my ideas with others and get feedback.

3. NASA Youth SpaceApps Toronto: For several years I have been participating as a Mentor, a project demonstrator, or workshop holder for NASA Youth SpaceApps Toronto to guide other youths on how to come up with space-related ideas to apply space technologies to earth based challenges.

Youths have been directly affected by the pandemics. For the past 2 years, most of our education has been happening virtually. Most of us have forgotten what a normal school life looks like. I have forgotten what it is to laugh together or eat together in class or participate in group activities.

But I continue to visit my local park every day for the past two years.

In the world of online devices, virtual classrooms, and zoom, neighborhood parks are one thing that has largely remained the same. They provide a place for kids to escape online school, exercise, relax, and interact with other kids. Parks are a reminder that public places are important, they provide us with a sense of community, and they clearly tell us that everyone finds visiting parks an enjoyable experience.

Parks allow people to interact in a safe manner. Visits to parks daily make online school more manageable, and the lives of youths calmer. When we improve the tree density of parks, we are saving an important place for future use, for future pandemics, for conserving biodiversity, and for taking direct action against climate change.

My App is directly focused on improving tree density and doing so with the involvement of youths and city officials. 

Youths have been directly affected by the pandemics. For the past 2 years, most of our education has been happening virtually. Most of us have forgotten what a normal school life looks like. I have forgotten what it is to laugh together or eat together in class or participate in group activities.

But I continue to visit my local park every day for the past two years.

In the world of online devices, virtual classrooms, and zoom, neighborhood parks are one thing that has largely remained the same. They provide a place for kids to escape online school, exercise, relax, and interact with other kids. Parks are a reminder that public places are important, they provide us with a sense of community, and they clearly tell us that everyone finds visiting parks an enjoyable experience.

Parks allow people to interact in a safe manner. Visits to parks daily make online school more manageable, and the lives of youths calmer. When we improve the tree density of parks, we are saving an important place for future use, for future pandemics, for conserving biodiversity, and for taking direct action against climate change.

My App is directly focused on improving tree density and doing so with the involvement of youths and city officials.