Pocket Park

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Inspiration

While researching about our problem statement we came across an article by the New York times link . This article talks about how there are fewer public parks accessible to under resourced people during COVID-19 when health was the most important factor these people were not able to access open spaces whereas privileged people had such parks/spaces within their society or reasonable distance from their habitat. If we take a step back and observe we will realize that most places surrounding natural resources are occupied by privileged people this let us to implement a solution that will help under resourced community to at least have a chance of breathing comparatively fresh air

What it does

Our application gathers information about under-resourced communities, including the Air Quality Index (AQI), and suggests possible locations where 'Pocket Parks' could be created. Environmental issues like air pollution are detrimental to everyone's health. However, privileged individuals are less affected because they have high-end resources such as air purifiers and access to private parks. In contrast, under-resourced people lack these privileges and rely on nature and available public parks. Unfortunately, many under-resourced communities don't have public parks near their habitats. Our application assists non-profit organizations, government agencies, or motivated individuals in building pocket parks for these communities by providing relevant information.

How we built it

We used Flask (Python framework) and Google APIs to build the web application, integrating these tools with a database containing information about under-resourced areas and available open spaces where trees could be planted. Additionally, we utilized Figma to create a prototype demonstrating the completed application's appearance. Our code is accessible on GitHub for further enhancements, aiming to improve the quality of life for under-resourced communities.

Challenges we ran into

1) There are a lot of environmental issues and ranking them is very difficult. Example(Air pollution, Water pollution, waste management). We did intensive research on our problem statement to come up with an issue as well as its solution made feasible using technology. 2) The dataset for detecting locations of under resourced community is not open/publicly accessible through any API. We had to read data from various websites and collect information so that we could successfully implement our project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our Solution, even though focuses on under resourced community areas, also provides a clear environment and takes a step closer to solving a global issue. There are a lot of educational sites that have been present since ages explaining people the effects of air pollution and necessary steps to prevent further damage. Our Solution not only focuses on educational awareness but also gives a reasonable solution to motivated people/groups to solve the issues.

What we learned

Through this project we carefully studied various data sets of environmental hazards and its impacts on human populations. We also learned that the environment can be improved if only a handful of people take charge and not wait for government or any other large organization to help us build a healthy life.

What's next for Pocket Park

1.Providing an opportunity for common people to report new spaces where we can plant trees. 2.The leaderboard system will encourage people to participate in tree planting activities by offering various rewards and incentives. This idea can be extended to include vertical plantation, especially in overpopulated areas where there is insufficient space for creating parks. 3.Our solution could also be expanded to address other environmental hazards, such as waste management, by providing relevant data about nearby dumping grounds and creating a waste management schedule.