Jal Drishti

Inspiration The spark for Jal Drishti came from a real-life struggle within our team. One of our members, hailing from Rajasthan, witnessed her family spend significant time and capital trying to establish a rainwater harvesting system. Despite the high stakes in such a water-stressed region, the project failed due to a complete lack of technical guidance and improper planning. On our own campus at Kurukshetra University (KUK), we saw similar non-functional setups, proving that while people want to save water, they often lack the tools to build systems that actually work.

What it does Jal Drishti is a user-friendly web and mobile application designed for the on-spot assessment of Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting (RTRWH) and artificial recharge potential. It uses AI rooftop detection and AR/VR visualization to allow users to see the impact and measurements of their system before implementation. The app provides high-precision forecasting, feasibility checks, and connects users with verified vendors to prevent the waste of time and money.

How we built it Under the banner of Team Code Titans, we developed a sophisticated technical pipeline:

Frontend & App: Built using Kotlin (Jetpack Compose) for Android , incorporating Mapbox for geospatial views.

Backend: Powered by Azure Microservices, Java, and Azure Functions to handle complex data retrieval and processing.

AI/ML & Computer Vision: Utilized U-Net and Mask R-CNN for automated rooftop detection and TensorFlow Lite for mobile optimization.

GIS Integration: Integrated QGIS and Post GIS with satellite data from Sentinel-2 and Landsat to assess local groundwater and soil layers.

Challenges we ran into Our biggest hurdle was ensuring technical accuracy at a granular level. Standard weather data is often too broad; we had to integrate multiple APIs—including IMD, NASA, and GPM—to create automated hydrological formulas that provide site-specific advice. Translating raw scientific measurements into "actionable wisdom" for non-technical users was a constant balancing act.

Accomplishments that we're proud of We are proud of creating a tool that offers tangible economic and environmental impact. Our system can help reduce water bills by up to 40% and save significant electricity, as raising groundwater by just one meter saves 0.40 kWh of pumping energy. Successfully building an immersive VR system view that makes sustainability "visible" to the average person is a major milestone for our team.

What we learned Through this project, we learned that technology must be paired with policy and accessibility to be effective. We deepened our expertise in GIS modeling and Satellite Data processing, but more importantly, we learned how to transform a personal frustration into a scalable social solution. We realized that effective water management is as much about community awareness as it is about engineering.

What's next for Jal Drishti Moving forward, we plan to expand our B2G (Business to Government) licensing to help universities and municipalities deploy this technology at scale. We aim to integrate Smart Maintenance Alerts via WhatsApp for real-time filter and gutter cleaning notifications. Finally, we hope to establish CSR partnerships to provide funding support for families in high-risk "orange and red" water zones, ensuring that no one is left behind in the mission for water security.