Project Coordination-Hyperlocal Mapping of Air Pollution and GHG Emissions

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

Air pollution in India has become serious public health issue in the recent past. According to the World Air Quality report 2021, 35 Indian cities feature among the top-50 most polluted cities of the world. While pollution in metropolitan cities like Delhi are widely reported, there are many tier-2 cities in Northern and Eastern parts of India that have hazardous air quality. Every year more than 500 million Indians are exposed to severe air pollution when AQI crosses 300 during winters. Recent Lancet study reveals, India experienced an estimated 1.2 million air pollution-related premature deaths in 2019 alone.

GeoAI in Air Pollution: UNDP along with University of Nottingham has developed GeoAI platform, a technology platform powered by citizen science, satellite imagery and Artificial Intelligence technology to identify hotspots of air pollution and vulnerable labor. More than 47000 brick kilns that are such hotspots across Indo-gangetic plains are accurately located by this platform from space and provided with open-access. The training data for this AI initiative is provided through citizen science and digital volunteers. Convolutional neural networks have been applied to use this training data to accurately locate geospatial coordinates of brick kilns across 12 states in India which cause 8-15% of air pollution in these regions. Such new data and intelligence to tackle air pollution have been produced for the first time in India by UNDP and partners.

The GeoAI intelligence on environmental compliance has been provided through mobile and web applications to our government partners like state pollution control boards of Bihar and Odisha for regulatory actions. The non-compliant industries identified through GeoAI platform have been issued closure notices by the environmental regulator.

About the project: Taking this work ahead, the team is now looking at expanding this research to incorporate other sources of pollution (industrial, vehicular, biomass burning, road dust etc.). The project intends to create hyperlocal dataset on targeted point sources and measure emissions in hyperlocal environment in Gurgaon and Bihar. Secondary data analysis using Satellite Data (Sentinel 5P/ NASA Aura) along with open data from ground monitoring stations such as CAAQMS (Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations) located in both the cities will be used to identify high-emission areas within cities. 100 Data volunteers will be inducted and trained in the cities to upskill them and convert them into citizen scientists. A combination of IoT based low-cost air quality sensor and Mobile App will be used for Data Collection. The annotated field data will be used by research partners such as University of Nottingham for data modelling leveraging on open data sources - satellite data (ESA/NASA), IoT data (CAAQMS, low-cost sensors) from the monitoring stations. The outcome will be a one-of-a-kind digital stack on emissions which is real time and encompasses all sources of emissions in the targeted cities.

Towards ensuring timely coordination and management of various tasks related to the above projects, UNDP is interested to hire the services of a UN Volunteer (UNV) who can effectively liaise with key stakeholders and partners for this project, provide timely inputs, perform monitoring and evaluation of progress related to the pilots and assist UNDP in making these innovations reach scale. The UNV will be reporting to the Action on Climate and Environment and Accelerator Lab teams. This assignment might require travel to liaise with stakeholders and partner organizations.

Objectives of the assignment • To manage and document all project components: emissions risk assessment, capacity building, mobile and web application development, data collection, processing and modeling, and use case pathways development .
• To liaise with key stakeholders, coordinate with partner organizations and assist in tracking progress related to each component of the project • To prepare timely project progress reports, monitor the expenditure of funds, alert the project teams on project deadlines and deliverables for ensuring timely completion of activities. • To assist the team in preparing project pitches, presentations, outreach materials related to the project and also in convening project meetings, preparing background materials and creating knowledge products related to the projects.

Tasks • Manage and oversee data collection from a wide variety of vendors and research partners. Special focus on data collection from underprivileged regions (example urban slums) should be undertaken to ensure inclusive data collection and fair representation. • Design and deliver the capacity building modules for citizen science which will also include training of minimum of citizen scientists and volunteers in the project cities. • Prepare detailed workflow documents, project monitoring and evaluation frameworks and a wide range of project related documentation. • Coordinate with government agencies such as state pollution control boards, partner organizations, vendors, UNDP programme teams to ensure synergy between all the project activities to ensure timely implementation of the project. • Prepare detailed roadmaps and undertake tasks for timely delivery of various activities and ensure compliance to UNDP corporate procedures and that of the donors and their reporting requirements. • Organize discussions with the concerned stakeholders like Govt. Officials, CSOs, industry players, research organizations and policy think tanks working on air pollution to collect information and data. • Support the core team in organizing project meetings, review meetings, making project pitches and presentations to report the progress related to the various projects. • Manage overall documentation and knowledge management component for the project in close coordination with the communication team. • Support the team in providing any other support related to the project as and when required.

• Demonstrable research skills. • Results-driven, initiative-taking, ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines. • Ability to effectively and efficiently interact with senior members and stakeholders. • Communication skills: Able to communicate clear ideas across a variety of mediums • Writing and presentation skills: Able to produce high quality reports and presentations. • Ability to work independently or with very limited guidance. • Good interpersonal and communication skills.

managing field projects, capacity building/training programs, convening project meetings and ensuring multi-stakeholder engagements. • Minimum 3 years of experience at the national or international level on issues related to environment including air pollution. • Desirable experience of working in technological innovation areas especially in the context of air pollution. • Experience of collecting primary and secondary data from various government and private sources • Demonstrated experience in organising workshops and/or training activities at the national and international level is desirable. • Demonstrated experience in preparing project progress reports, donor reports and monitoring and evaluation reports. • Demonstrated experience in managing data and information systems in close coordination with multiple stakeholders. • Desirable to have project management certifications • Ability to work under minimal supervision, strict timelines and prioritising deliverables based on time sensitivities • Good programme design skills, including capacity to prepare logical, coherent and consistent documents including log-frames and budgets.

New Delhi and the surrounding National Capital Region is a large and bustling metropolis of some 14 million people undergoing rapid changes. The capital city is an administrative, cultural and commercial center with modern amenities and well connected by air. It is a safe place with large expatriate community drawn from embassies, UN agencies, MNCs and foreign businesses. It has short moderate winter and long hot summer.

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials. This position is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. National UN Volunteers are part of the malicious insurance plan. National UN Volunteers are expected to be culturally sensitive and adjust to the prevailing culture and traditions. The contract lasts for the period indicated above with possibility of extensions subject to availability of funding, operational necessity and satisfactory performance. However, there is no expectation of renewal of the assignment.

This assignment is part of the special programme initiative. As per the UN Volunteer Conditions of Service, Section XVIII, the Conditions for this assignment are amended as follows: • The Monthly Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA) will be INR 90,000/- per month • The UN Volunteer is not eligible for one-time Entry Lumpsum allowance or assignment and repatriation travel costs • Health insurance will not be provided to dependents of the UN Volunteer • Access to UNV learning will be restricted to mandatory courses and free-of-charge learning resources provided by UNV.