Inspiration
Cities today face constant issues like illegal dumping, water leakage, blocked drains, and broken streetlights — but citizens often don’t know where to report them or whether anyone will take action. We wanted to build something that empowers people to take responsibility for their surroundings and helps authorities respond faster.
Inspired by Google Maps, Swachh Bharat, and crowdsourced platforms like FixMyStreet, we created a next-gen environmental reporting tool that makes complaint filing visual, fast, and smart.
🛰️ What it does
Urban Eco-Audit is an AI-powered, map-based web platform where users can:
Tap on the Google Map to report environmental problems
Upload photos & auto-tag the exact location
Get AI-generated issue category, summary, and urgency level
View all city issues on an interactive real-time map
Filter reports (waste, water, drainage, energy, etc.)
Track status: Open → In Review → Resolved
Earn badges for contributing to city cleanliness
City administrators get a powerful dashboard to:
Review reports
Update statuses
View analytics, heatmaps, clusters
Improve city maintenance with data-driven insights
🛠️ How we built it
We used a modern full-stack architecture:
Next.js 14 for frontend + backend routes
TailwindCSS + ShadCN UI for clean, spacious UI
Google Maps API for maps, markers & clustering
PostgreSQL + Prisma for database
Cloudinary for image uploads
NextAuth for secure user authentication
OpenAI/Gemini to auto-detect category, summarize the report & assign urgency
Framer Motion for smooth animations
Deployed on Vercel
We focused on building a system that's both simple for citizens and powerful for administrators.
🚧 Challenges we ran into
Integrating Google Maps with Next.js (hydration + API loading issues)
Designing a clean UI that works on both mobile and desktop
Ensuring accurate geolocation from map clicks
Handling image uploads efficiently with Cloudinary
Training AI to classify multiple environment-related categories
Building a scalable structure for future city-wide deployments
Every challenge helped us make the platform more robust and user-friendly.
🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of
Building a live, interactive city issue map from scratch
Implementing fully functional AI issue classification
Creating a clean and aesthetic UI that feels modern
Smooth map performance even with many markers
A working admin dashboard with real analytics
Turning a complicated reporting system into a simple, one-tap experience
Most importantly—creating a tool that can genuinely help cities become cleaner and smarter.
📚 What we learned
How to integrate Google Maps deeply with full-stack workflows
Real-world challenges of building geolocation apps
Designing user flows for non-technical city citizens
Building AI models that work with real-world images & text
The importance of clean UI and fast reporting experiences
Handling large datasets with clustering and map optimization
🚀 What's next for Urban Eco-Audit
We plan to expand the platform with:
A mobile app (React Native)
Live CCTV + IoT sensor integration
Reward system for top contributors
City-level heatmaps showing cleanliness performance
AI-powered anomaly detection in images
Multi-city deployment with regional dashboards
Support for voice-based reporting
Our long-term vision: Make every city smarter, cleaner, and more responsive — powered by its citizens
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