High-Level Project Summary
The lack of awareness about the ecological footprint, as well as environmental care, are issues that the majority of the world's population is unaware of, in the long term, different ecosystems have been affected globally, such as the Arctic - Boreal. Our team is given the task of developing a project on a video game that raises awareness and informs people, through a set of images and information on the subject. The central idea is to have a video game with valuable content about the Arctic - Boreal with the most relevant data to date, showing the change it has had over the years.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Background
The Arctic – Boreal has been the subject of research to understand and predict ecosystem responses to climate change, which has been around for several years. In 2015, a NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program campaign collecting aerial and field data focused on atmosphere, carbon dynamics, fire disturbance, vegetation, and wildlife.
The data obtained help the acquisition of data, but also serve to make the year-to-year comparison. Allowing to recognize the consequences of climate change and the possible measures to consider that would be implemented to reverse or reduce said problems.
The use of aerial collection resources, present more accurate information by covering a larger sampling area when dealing with fires and thaws, significantly increasing the effect on the original state of the area, causing considerable changes.
Importance in our project
In the Arctic - Boreal there are species such as the Dall's sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) and the wolf (Canis lupus), on the other hand, there is an enormous variety of unique fauna in the region. It was divided into 24 mountainous units.
In recent years, the information collected from the air shows a displacement of the Dall's sheep due to the thinning of the snow layers that cover the area, making it difficult to count the species. It was divided into 24 mountainous units for a better study of the area, as the snow cover was affected, the Dall sheep have moved to mountainous units that are not usual for them and with this affecting the previous record that was had. An important point to consider is the open areas that Dall sheep require to forage efficiently and allow detection and evasion of predators.
In 2017, rapid changes in temperature and precipitation led to a mismatch between resource availability, as well as changes in weather factors and the wolf's life cycle. The aforementioned is only part of the flora and fauna affected by the melting, with the probability of further complication.
This project focuses on informing the population about the current situation in specific areas of the planet due to carelessness on the part of society. It is expected to have a significant impact on a large social scale, allowing in the long term, to reduce the ecological footprint of each person, thereby conserving ecosystems such as the Arctic - Boreal. This would reduce the climate change that is generated by human beings, as well as promoting possible solutions that significantly help this problem.
Solution to our problem
In our project, the solution we found is a video game that, through information and decision-making, educates people about the problems associated with climate change on Earth, causing an impact while generating content of social value.
Specifications
Four softwares were used, the main one was Adobe XD which is an interface design software, one of its advantages is easy editing as well as being interactive; On the other hand, Cooltext was used, being useful for the generation of texts which will complement the design of the interface, allowing to capture the attention of the users; Midjourney being the choice for the creation of the graphics used, being an artificial intelligence (AI) software, it facilitates the elaboration from written descriptions, the elaborated images are free of rights, this being its greatest advantage; finally, Ventusky, an interesting website that uses an interactive map to navigate, showing the world's weather conditions in real time.
Implementation
With a focus solely on the Arctic - Boreal zone with the data collected from the Terrestrial Ecology Program campaign, the video game is divided into sections which are Flora, Fauna, Climate, Future, Querétaro and Airborne Science.
When you start, a menu with three options Play, Help and Exit is displayed. When clicking on "Play" a new view appears with the different sections that make up the game, the sections are "flora", "fauna", "climate", "future" and "Querétaro" .
Each one has two possible unique ways to play, using images and information to develop the game, as well as learning about current climate problems. The area of interest is to reflect and find possible solutions. The help option allows you to change the language and consult the instructions of the game.
Future of the project
One of the advantages of the project is the different fields of study to which it can be applied. Being possible to add different ecosystems, new graphics sequences, more complex animations and different game forms. Considering the probability of a new version whose main idea is space and everything that it encompasses.
Space Agency Data
EARTHDATA: open access for research
- ·Wildlife
- vegetation
ABoVE (The Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment).
ORNL DAAC (Distributed Active Archive Center for Biogeochemical Dynamics).
Hackathon Journey
The motivation for the election and elaboration of the challenge was to make society aware of climate change, being a topic of interest today. Knowing that there are repercussions for the activities of the human being, providing a tool to promote a better environmental culture in society. We are students of Mechatronics motivated by the opportunity to participate and learn a little more about the different fields of technology that are part of NASA.
Being of great help the information provided which gave access to develop in a relevant way the challenge of our choice, the technology used for the acquisition and analysis of data is really surprising. The way in which airplanes collect data is interesting, on the other hand, the existence of various platforms that have valuable information to find useful data for analysis, observation and comparison of aspects at a global level.
Learning to interpret the data for the creation of something new, in our case the creation of a didactic and informative game. Possibly being the watershed for a new alternative that favors the way in which society sees ecosystems.
A point in favor to reach the result obtained was the organization of the team from the first moment, demonstrating the disposition, as well as the decision-making of each one of the members. An issue that had to be considered was the creation of the deliverable, since we left our comfort zone to do it in a totally new software for us, but the result is what keeps us satisfied. With this, it only remains to thank the creation of activities of this type.
References
[1]"ABoVE: Phenology and reproductive success of Wolf Denning, Alaska and Canada, 2000-2017", Daac.ornl.gov , 2021. [En línea]. Disponible: https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Wolves_Denning_Pups_Climate.html. [Consultado: 01- Oct- 2022]
[2]"ABoVE: Dall Sheep Track sinking depths, snow depth, hardness and density, 2017", Daac.ornl.gov , 2018. [En línea]. Disponible: https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Snowpack_Dall_Sheep_Track.html. [Consultado: 01- Oct- 2022]
[3]"ABoVE: Dall Sheep Lamb Recruitment and Climate Data, Alaska and NW Canada, 2000-2015", Daac.ornl.gov , 2018. [En línea]. Disponible: https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Dall_Sheep_Population_Dynamics.html. [Consultado: 01- Oct- 2022]
[4]"ABoVE: Canadian Boreal Forest Green Peak from Landsat 5 TM Imagery, 1984-2011", Daac.ornl.gov , 2018. [En línea]. Disponible: https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/Canada_Boreal_Forest_Greenness.html. [Consultado: 01- Oct- 2022]
[5]"ABoVE: Unburned and Post-Fire Vegetation Community and Field Data, NWT, Canada, 2017", Daac.ornl.gov , 2022. [En línea]. Disponible: https://daac.ornl.gov/ABOVE/guides/ABoVE_NWT_2017_Field_Data.html. [Consultado: 01- Oct- 2022]
[6] "Map of where bears live in North America - Geology- 2022", spreckelsunionsd, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://es.spreckelsunionsd.org/bear-areas-690. [Accessed: 02- Oct- 2022]
Tags
#technology, #games, #ecology, #Freezing the future,