Finding Forester is an AI-powered environmental impact assessment tool developed for Hack PSU 2026. It allows users to select specific forest regions on an interactive map and generates professional-grade ecological reports detailing the consequences of deforestation and localized conservation recovery plans.
- Interactive Area Selection: Draw polygons on a global map to select specific forested regions.
- Geospatial Intelligence: Automatically detects coordinates, calculates area in hectares, and identifies if the selection is over land, water, or near urban centers.
- AI-Driven Ecology Reports: Utilizes Gemini 2.5 Flash to provide deep-dive assessments:
- Environmental Changes: Quantified impacts on biodiversity, water systems, and soil.
- Flora & Fauna Analysis: Identification of native species (scientific names) and specific survival risks.
- Human Health Impact: Analysis of how local populations depend on the forest for water, medicine, and food.
- Climate Future: 10-50 year outlooks on regional climate resilience.
- Actionable Conservation Plans: Step-by-step restoration guides with localized tree species and estimated costs.
- Data Persistence: Uses a mix of
localStorageand Cookies to save assessments and map selections across sessions.
- Frontend: React, Next.js, Tailwind CSS
- Animation: Framer Motion, Lucide React (Icons)
- AI/LLM: Google Generative AI SDK (Gemini 2.5 Flash)
- Maps & Geocoding: Leaflet, OpenStreetMap Nominatim API, BigDataCloud API
- UI Components: Radix UI / Shadcn UI
To run this project, you must provide your own API key from Google AI Studio.
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Go to Google AI Studio.
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Create a new API Key.
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Local Setup: For development, you can replace the
GEMINI_API_KEYstring insrc/pages/Home.js:const GEMINI_API_KEY = "INSERT_KEY_HERE";
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Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/finding-forester.git cd finding-forester -
Install dependencies:
npm install
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Run the development server:
npm run dev
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Access the app: Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.