4 environment challenges that open data can help solve

A few months ago, the Open Data Climático, carried out by the Spanish Meteorology Agency, starred a large number of news, with headlines such as "70% of Spaniards affected by climate change", "Summers are five weeks longer than they were in the eighties" or "The semi-arid climate advances towards Galicia".

Our planet faces big challenges in the coming years: deforestation, high levels of contamination, melting of the poles, desertification ... All these element endanger the life of the different species that live on the Earth, leading some even to extinction. In addition, it could damage the economic development: if the effects of climate change are not mitigated, the global market could suffer a recession of up to 20% of global GDP, as said by Carmen Parra, Director of the Chair of Solidarity Economy of the Abat Oliba CEU University, based on the Stern Report on the impact of climate change on the economy.

Human beings have the responsibility to try to reverse this situation, and the technology and open data can help us. Providing detailed and up-to-date information helps to raise environment awareness, as well as to seek solutions to climate change and the other environmental challenges that affect us.

Taking advantage of World Environment Day, in datos.gob.es we have wanted to compile some examples of applications that reuse open data generated by public bodies and whose objective is to promote sustainability and environment improvements.

Fight against pollution

Nine out of ten people around the world are exposed to levels of pollution that surpass the security quotas indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO). An increasing number of cities, regions and countries put in place mechanisms to try to limit the amount of pollutant particles and gases emitted. In this sense, we can also find more applications to inform about air or rivers situation in real time.

• airACT. This application, developed by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia together with Ecologistas en Acción and the CSIC, among others, seeks to inform the population about the air quality in real time. Through an alerts system, based on WHO recommendations, users can know main air pollutants levels, as well as the risk they are exposed to.
• Riu Net. In addition to the air we breathe, it is also important to raise awareness about water quality. Riu Net is an interactive educational tool that allows evaluating the ecological status of the rivers and, at the same time, it provide scientific data that can be consulted both by experts and environmental managers and the general public.

Improve waste management

8 million tons of plastics arrive every year to our oceans. To end this situation, it is necessary to promote the reuse and recycling of materials. The applications that show the waste collection points help raise awareness and educate public about the recycling, classification and disposal of waste. Some examples of these applications are:

• Garbage containers in Cáceres. This application help to visualize the location of all containers in the city of Cáceres. The user can filter by types of container (organic, plastics, paper, etc.) to improve the search and locate the closest container.

• CleanSpotApp - Your nearest clean point !. Some waste needs specialized containers (recycling centres). Thanks to applications like CleanSpotApp we can know the closest household waste recycling centre to deposit batteries, electrical appliances, light bulbs, used oil, clothes and shoes, toys, books and school supplies, coffee capsules, etc.

Promote sustainable means of transport

Automobiles account for 83% of transport CO2 emissions. Some applications based on open data seek to avoid or reduce the individual use of private cars and encourage the use of more sustainable means of transport (public transport, bicycles, electric scooters).

• dBizi++. dBizi Users can know, with a frequency of 5-6 minutes, the availability of bicycles in the 16 stations of the city of San Sebastián. In addition, the application informs the user about the feasibility of their journey, using historical and real-time data.
• Puedo circular. This application provides personalized information on the contamination protocols in the city of Madrid. The user only has to enter the license plate of his vehicle in the web / application and will obtain information on the environmental mark that corresponds to the vehicle, the current scenario activated according to the pollution protocol of the city and the effects of this scenario: whether or not you can travel around the city, where you can park or what speed you should keep to reduce the environmental impact.

Fight against noise pollution

We usually forget acoustic pollution when we talk about environment, but its effects can be very harmful to health: it can generate from stress and sleep disorders to loss of attention or cardiovascular diseases. In Spain, at least 9 million people support average levels of 65 decibels, the limit accepted by WHO.

• ComfortUP!:This is a mobile application for citizen collaboration, through which people who are using public spaces can assess the comfort of these places from an acoustic and thermal point of view, based on their own experience. The application also allows observations and measurements of environmental conditions in a selection of city parks.

•  Noise Capture: This application support citizen science project whose objective is to register the noise levels listened by the users. In addition to discovering the noise pollution suffered by citizens, it allows us to share this information and contribute to the creation of collaborative noise maps on a voluntary and anonymous basis.

The protection and improvement of the environment is a fundamental issue that affects welfare and social and economic development. Therefore, it must be one of the priorities not only of governments, but also of citizens. Thanks to the open data, and the services created based on them, citizens can be more aware of their environment and act accordingly to reduce their environmental footprint.