Project title:
The Dambovita River: Phenomena Regarding Its Pollution
Research question
Is there a correlation between the quantity of precipitation, greenhouse gas emissions, respectively the temperature range, and the daily level of the Dambovita River passing through Bucharest?
Describe the local climate problem/issue you want to investigate
The purpose of our project is to study the correlation, if any, between the precipitation quantity, respectively the temperature range, and daily level of the Dambovita River, passing through our capital city Bucharest. In order to extend our analysis, we intend to investigate the rainiest and the driest month of the year, in a 5-year time span, in several counties in Romania.
Additionally, we will be analyzing the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the overall quality of the water in the Dambovita basin and their implications.
Furthermore, we intend to compare the result we will be getting for three consecutive one-year time spans before, during, and after the Covid-19 lockdown. We also wish to study, by means of aerial photos taken by the Sentinel satellite, whether the deforestation in the area does play any substantial role.
What kind of Earth observation data will you use?
Ground measurements, Satellite images, Data collected using sensors placed on a rover built by us.
Describe how you plan to investigate the climate problem and which data you plan to analyse. Also, describe how you plan to access/collect the data: Having participated in the Climate Detectives School Project since 7th grade, our veteran team of high school juniors is always eager to investigate climate phenomena of utmost importance.
To begin with, we will compute the precipitation quantity, respectively the temperature range across the Dambovita basin together with the daily level of the Dambovita River. What is more, we will measure the level of precipitation with our own rain gauge, in Bucharest. Using additional data regarding the greenhouse gas emissions, we will attempt to correlate these parameters to the degree of pollution and see if there is any connection between them.
Besides, we also aim to analyze the levels of greenhouse gas emissions in our city, Bucharest, taking into account carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels. We will use a rover equipped with all the required sensors that can be remotely controlled by a laptop to gather all the data we need. Moreover, previous levels of pollution in the city will be compared to current ones in order to draw a thorough conclusion on the topic.
To conclude, we find it imperative to take action, so we will initiate a “Together for a pollution-free Dambovita river” campaign and thus organize a river cleaning action. Using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, we have already created a website where we share our projects in order to raise awareness to the general public, so we will make sure that this year’s Climate Detectives challenge will be featured there.
