Hello elphas,

Good day to y'all !

Need a small help. I'm participating in SustAIn challenge. I've pasted the link above that has complete details. In short, building sustainable solutions/products pertaining applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to one of UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This year's category is SDG 11 - Sustainable cities and communities.

Sustainability has always been close to my heart, though I implement in some small ways possible, never able to do it big time. This challenge seemed like a good opportunity to build something that's close to me, as well as use my tech knowledge for social good. On that perspective, below is a short write up of my idea that I'm proposing in the challenge. This is just a starting point.

When I was young, I used to visit my granny's house for holidays. It had  a big garden with so many flowering plants and trees. We used to grow vegetables in that garden itself, it was such a great hobby and healthy too. Being in city, living in an apartment, I always miss that. We've always wanted to have a terrace garden, but somehow it never happened. As part of SustAIn challenge, I thought I can bring it to life.

Again, the benefits a terrace garden can bring is a lot. It is closely tied with the concept of sustainable cities, where one can grow their own vegetables and fruits, with natural manure thus staying healthy and self-sustained. No harmful pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, reduce the logistics of transportation thus reducing a bit of air pollution and  depletion of fuels, no middlemen, no storage and preservation problems.

The problem statement is that, most of us would want to grow a terrace garden in cities, but we wouldn't know where to start. What are the resources, what is the cost, how to maintain, how to do the things the right way. Not all of us may have the knowledge and the time to answer these questions and implement them. Hence, goes as a dream project for a lot of people.

The solution I'm proposing is to build a marketplace (webapp or mobileapp) that connects people who have the interest to grow a terrace garden, and the people who have the knowledge to implement them. In fact, train & build a community of people to implement these. That way, it creates employment opportunities for those who are interested, upskill in a different field like agriculture (if they don't have a background), also I've also seen many people from rural areas with agriculture background come to city for work and a better life, such people may have knowledge, and such a solution will help channelize that and provide an  income option too.

How  AI plays a role in this solution (to start with) are, (1) To understand  the growth and health of plants (2) To provide recommendations based on soil. These can be handled by AI if required soil data, good and healthy plant data is provided (3) To marry the right consumer with the right provider (Based on requirements, budget, space availability, time availability of consumers against providers)

On this context, I prepared a short survey that'll help me validate couple of things. It would take 3-4 minutes. Would be really helpful if you could send in your responses.

Note: If terrace is something that's not present in the country where you live, imagine gardening in small spaces while you answer. (a terrace is an open, outdoor space off your apartment that sits on a building’s setback, therefore not extending over the facade of the building. That’s unlike a balcony, which is smaller and overhangs the building’s exterior wall. It’s different from a loggia, which is covered outdoor space.)

Here is the link: https://forms.gle/9VNyxiHXTdyqYKcQA. I really appreciate your time and effort.

Also, please feel free to share your thoughts, suggestions, critics, just anything to make the solution better.

Cheers,

Sambhavi