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Lightning Talk Beginner First Talk

Empowering Pune with Open Tree Data: A Data-Driven Dashboard for a Cooler, Greener City using FOSS

Approved
Session Description

This talk introduces the Pune Urban Tree Dashboard, a FOSS-powered web application making Pune's urban environmental data accessible and actionable for greener, climate-resilient planning.

  • The Challenge: Utilizing Pune's open data (like the 2019 Tree Census and satellite-derived Land Surface Temperatures - LST) effectively for urban greening and heat mitigation.

  • Our FOSS Solution - The Dashboard: An interactive platform providing:

    • City-Wide Tree Visualization: Explore Pune's tree census data on an interactive map.

    • Carbon Sequestration Insights: View CO₂ absorbed by trees, calculated using scientific allometric equations (estimating tree benefits based on size and type).

    • Urban Cooling Metrics: Understand how different tree species cool their surroundings using:

      • P90 Cooling: How much a species cools the area during peak heat (hottest 10% of conditions).

      • P10 Cooling: The consistent cooling effect during milder warm conditions (10th percentile LST).
        (These compare under-tree LST to nearby non-vegetated areas within a 500m buffer, using satellite LST data.)

    • "Know Your Neighbourhood" Tool: Draw any area on the map to see localized tree counts and CO₂ data, compared visually to city totals.

    • Planting Advisor & Simulation:

      • Guides species selection based on cooling effects and dimensions.

      • Simulates optimal tree placement (hexagonal grid) in user-drawn areas.

      • A chart predicts LST changes, showing a baseline LST profile (oscillating between area's max and ~60th percentile LST) and the "cooled LST" after simulated planting using the species' P90/P10 effects.

    • LST Overlay: Visualizes satellite-derived Land Surface Temperature with a clear color-gradient legend.

  • Methodology & Impact: The project is built with common FOSS web technologies. The dashboard aims to empower citizens and planners with data-driven insights. Development leverages AI tools to translate the project vision into a functional application, demonstrating a modern approach to creating FOSS solutions.

Key Takeaways

  • How to leverage open city data (tree census, satellite LST) and FOSS tools to build impactful environmental dashboards.

  • Understanding and applying novel metrics (P90/P10 cooling) to assess tree species' urban cooling capabilities.

  • Insights into simulating tree planting layouts and predicting their thermal impact on local LST profiles.

References

https://kaushik-ravi.github.io/pune-tree-dashboard-sample/
https://github.com/Kaushik-Ravi/pune-tree-dashboard-sample
https://data.opencity.in/dataset/pune-tree-census-2019

Session Categories

Introducing a FOSS project or a new version of a popular project
Knowledge Commons (Open Hardware, Open Science, Open Data etc.)
Which track are you applying for?
Open Data Devroom

Speakers

Kaushik Ravi

Kaushik Ravi is a recent graduate from NIT Trichy (May 2025) and a dedicated problem-solver with over eight years of hands-on experience with Reap Benefit, starting from his 8th standard. His passion lies at the intersection of technology, environment, and people, focusing on building tangible solutions to real-world challenges.

Kaushik's journey includes impactful roles such as being part of Reap Benefit's Youth Board and serving as a Youth Advisor for the Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) initiative at The World Bank. His innovative approach to tackling climate change earned him the Avery Dennison Foundation InvEnt Scholarship in 2022 for the "Best Idea for Combating Climate Change."

Furthering his commitment to environmental data science, Kaushik was awarded a DAAD WISE Scholarship, enabling him to conduct a three-month research project at the Technical University of Berlin. There, he analyzed Berlin's tree dataset, correlating it with oxygen production and ambient temperature to create visualizations for public transport users, demonstrating the environmental impact of urban greenery along their commutes.

Identifying as a "no-coder" or "vibe-coder," Kaushik possesses a strong ability to visualize and articulate complex project visions. He then skillfully leverages AI tools and Large Language Models to bring these concepts to fruition. He candidly shares that his projects, including the dashboard he will present, are built by effectively guiding these advanced technologies. This approach showcases how clear vision and modern FOSS-aligned strategies can drive impactful development, democratizing the creation of sophisticated tools. His current work on the Pune Urban Tree Dashboard is a testament to this, combining open data and accessible technology to empower communities.

 Student / Builder https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaushik2002/
Kaushik Ravi

Reviews

Reviewer #1 Approved

I like the talk, and marking as +1 from my end. However, I'm not sure if all this content can fit in a 10 minute lightning talk (Note that our devroom is doing shorter 10 min lightning talks).

Reviewer #2 Approved

+1

Reviewer #3 Approved
Reviewer #4 Approved
Reviewer #5 Approved