Inspiration
Our app started with an idea to work with the EPA's Air Quality Service data. At first, we thought about using AI to predict air quality in certain areas, but eventually felt it was not a good use of our time. Finally, we decided to create a web app that utilizes the data made available through the EPA to educate users about the air quality in their area and empower then to take individual steps towards reducing their environmental impact through goal setting and tracking.
What it does
The app uses the user's location to create and display a report of the Air Quality Index values of pollutants being tracked by EPA in their area.
How we built it
We started off with building a backend module that could send, receive, and parse data to and from the EPA's AQS API. Then, we worked to build a frontend that could display the data to the user in a way that made sense (instead of just showing raw numbers).
Challenges we ran into
No one was particularly well versed in front-end development, so we ran into plenty of front-end related issues such as blocks overlapping each other, or requests not being properly sent or received on the front-end.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
This was my first time working with any form of dynamic webpage, so I'm proud of the fact that I was able to put something half-functional together.
What we learned
Looking through the data from the EPA AQS API, we learned two things:
- The data is not entirely up to date. It was usually 90 to 120 days behind the present.
- The data is not highly relevant towards the common individual because many of the pollutants being tracked were caused by industry related emissions. ## What's next for My Outdoor Air I may come back to fully flesh out the goal tracking feature and make the app more relevant to the user.
Built With
- css
- epa-aqs-api
- flask
- html
- javascript
- python
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