GeoWeather

Inspiration

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 60,000 people each year have died from weather-related disasters such as floods, hurricanes, heatwaves, and droughts. As climate change worsens, we are seeing higher death rates due to more frequent and severe natural disasters. The impact of climate change on these events is a major concern, as it is leading to more extreme weather events and increasing the risk of fatalities.

We wanted to develop a solution to solve the issue of people not being aware of climate change and ongoing weather conditions. We want to ensure that people are well-informed in advance to prepare for these natural disasters and to prevent fatalities.

As a result, we wanted to create a tool for people to be aware of weather patterns and receive alerts for natural disasters before it’s too late. Some of the most common causes of people dying from natural disasters include physical trauma, drowning, hypothermia, suffocation, and lack of access to emergency services. As the common saying goes, prevention is better than cleanup, so it’s crucial that people learn about these weather patterns to prevent adverse effects.

As a team, we have one main value in common: it’s that we all care about impact. We recognize that climate change and natural disasters disproportionately affect people of color. This is because marginalized communities, including low-income communities and communities of color often live in areas that are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters, and they have less access to resources and support to cope with these impacts.

For example, communities of color are more likely to live in areas that are susceptible to flooding, hurricanes, and other natural disasters, and they may lack the financial resources to evacuate or rebuild after a disaster.

With our platform, we hope to make an impact on all people, especially marginalized communities, because we want to help those affected the most by climate change and natural disasters.

What it does

Our platform allows people to access weather data in real time to stay up to date with current events and impending natural disasters before they strike. Additionally, urban planners can use our platform to assess weather patterns in order to understand the patterns of climate change in various cities/areas.

By scrolling and dragging through a map, users can easily find information about temperature, humidity, and wind speed, which can allow residents to know if there are natural disasters on the way, and to evacuate and escape in the case of one.

Our map pulls together all data and information on weather in an area and allows for this information to be used for natural disaster prevention services and urban planning.

How we built it

We used an API called openWeatherMap, integrated with an interactive map that finds real-time data of input cities. From there, it gives users the temperature, humidity, and windspeed of the specified area.

Challenges we ran into

Our initial idea was to implement an AI-powered service that allows users to click on an area shown through our satellite imagery and give them an AI-generated answer on finding areas to incorporate green roofs and urban greenery. We were over ambitious with no cognition of time. We ended up scratching that idea and pivoting to our current idea.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we learned how to implement an API database and parse through the code to make coherent information. As a team composed of all beginners in this field, we explored different avenues that involved Machine Learning repositories and deep learning databases that helped us learn more about formatting.

We are extremely grateful that we persevered and were able to use our collective knowledge to develop this system. Many times we pivoted from our initial ambitious idea as we knew that we wanted to implement the most feasible solution.

What we learned

We learned that ideation can go a long way and that there is nothing preventing us from accomplishing what we hope to do. New skills can be learned and acquired, and it’s up to us to put in the effort and to have the determination to want to learn and grow. As beginners, it was sometimes intimidating to understand and interpret new concepts, but with a strong learner mindset we were able to push through and complete the project. We also learned that many times, our ideas may not go as planned, but it’s important to be open to pivoting and to adapt quickly as challenges may arise.

What's next for GeoWeather

We plan to build on our project in the future, potentially expanding the information provided to include thermal imaging and thermal data. This way, urban planners can see which areas are more susceptible to urban heat islands, and incorporate urban greenery and design as a result to reduce the urban heat island effect.

Built With

• api
• sql