Product 02 · Chhaya · For cities, states & disaster authorities

Put the shade where the people are.

Chhaya combines thermal satellite data with six ground-level vulnerability factors to find the wards where heat hurts most — then simulates where water points, shade shelters and cooling centres will protect the most people for your budget.

Run the simulator ↓

PASS 02 — THE INSIGHT B11 SWIR

Hot ≠ vulnerable.

Satellites alone point you to the hottest surfaces — often empty fields, rail yards and industrial roofs. Chhaya weights heat by who is exposed and how vulnerable they are, so resources go where lives are actually at risk.

Layer

Same city. Same day. Different answer.

Illustrative simulation on synthetic data — not a forecast.

PASS 03 — THE SIX FACTORS B12 SWIR-2

Six factors decide who gets hurt.

01

Surface heat

Landsat 8/9 thermal · MODIS · ECOSTRESS

Where the ground and roofs are hottest.

02

Population density

Census · WorldPop (100 m)

How many people are exposed.

03

Age (elderly & young children)

Census age tables

Bodies least able to cope.

04

Outdoor & informal workers

Census/PLFS worker categories

People who cannot stay indoors.

05

Housing quality

Slum lists · roof material from imagery

Tin roofs turn homes into ovens.

06

Access to water, shade & care

OSM · municipal facility lists

How far relief is.

Modifier

Humidity

IMD / ERA5

Turns 40 °C into a 50 °C feels-like.

PASS 04 — LIVE SIMULATOR B04 RED

Same budget. More lives.

Simulation · Synthetic City 07 · 640 Cells ≈ 250 m v0.1

Layer

Water points / shade shelters 15

Strategy

High-risk people within 500 m0

Vs hottest-first+0%

Assumed cost₹ 30 L

People reached per ₹1 lakh0

Assumed cost at an illustrative unit cost of ₹2 L per shaded water point.

Illustrative simulation on synthetic data — not a forecast.

PASS 05 — WHAT CITIES GET B03 GREEN

What a city gets.

Output 01

Ward Heat Vulnerability Index (0–100)

A ranked list of every ward, with the breakdown by factor.

Output 02

Intervention plan

GPS list of recommended sites for water points, shade shelters, cooling centres, and cool-roof priority blocks, with people protected per site.

Output 03v0.2

Heat-season ops view

Daily ward risk from IMD forecasts, with alert lists for field teams.

Output 04v0.3

Proof of impact

Before/after surface temperature at intervention sites, as evidence for funders and audits. Ahmedabad’s Heat Action Plan avoided about 1,190 deaths a year — proof that targeted action works.^¹²

PASS 06 — SPECIFICATIONS B02 BLUE

Specification

v0.1 · Target specs — to be validated in pilot

Users: Municipal corporations, Smart City SPVs, State Disaster Management Authorities, health departments, NGOs
Core question: With budget B, where do N interventions protect the most vulnerable people?
Spatial unit: 30–100 m grid → aggregated to ward
Thermal inputs: Landsat 8/9 TIRS (100 m native, delivered 30 m); MODIS LST (daily, 1 km); ECOSTRESS (~70 m); commercial high-res thermal (future)
Other satellite inputs: Sentinel-2 (vegetation, built-up, roof material proxies)
Ground inputs: Census & WorldPop population; age structure; worker categories; slum/informal settlement lists; OSM + municipal facilities (water, health, shelters); ward boundaries; IMD forecasts & humidity
Index method: Hazard × Exposure × Vulnerability (6 factors, transparent weights, editable by the city)
Optimiser: Weighted maximum-coverage placement under budget & walking-distance constraints
Interventions modelled: Drinking-water points, shade shelters, cooling centres, cool-roof blocks, tree-planting blocks (v0.2)
Outputs: Ward HVI ranking · GIS layers · intervention site list (lat/long) · people protected · cost per person protected
Delivery: Web dashboard · GeoJSON/Shapefile · PDF for Heat Action Plan annex · REST API
Refresh: Seasonal baseline; daily risk during heat season (v0.2)
Validation: Back-tested against ward-level heatstroke cases / ambulance calls where available
Funding fit: Eligible spend categories under heatwave-as-notified-disaster (SDRF/NDRF)^⁶; NHRC ward-mapping recommendation^⁸

PASS 07 — WHY CHHAYA IS DIFFERENT B01 COASTAL

Not another heat map.

Maps → decisions

Free dashboards show priority wards. Chhaya tells you the exact sites, and how many people each one protects.

Hot ≠ vulnerable

Six human factors, not just surface temperature.

Lives per rupee

Every plan comes with a cost and an impact estimate the finance department can sign off.

PASS 08 — ROADMAP & GET STARTED ALL BANDS

v0.1 HVI + placement v0.2 Daily heat-season ops v0.3 Impact verification v1.0 State-wide

Pilot Chhaya in one city before next summer.

Request a pilot → Explore Varsha →