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LY Arquitectos

OPERATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY INDEX · AUTÓNOMA BETA

Where will you be when the system fails?

We delegated water, energy and food to networks we assumed eternal. Pick a point on the planet and we tell you how much of those three you could produce yourself — and how much you still delegate.

Read the manifesto: The World to Come →
— readings and counting. The map grows with every search.

Advanced mode provides more data on sun exposure, wind, food, and consumption.

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Simple Advanced
Location Elevation— Climate iKöppen-Geiger: standard system that classifies climate by temperature and precipitation (e.g. BWk = cold arid, Cfa = humid temperate).— Time zone— Now · temp— Wind— Rain—
Ready.
02Diagnosis The answer, calculated with conservative default assumptions. How much of your energy, water, and food this site covers —before you adjust anything.
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Energy autonomy iHow much you generate in the year (solar + wind) relative to what you consume. Uncapped: over 100% is a real surplus. But summer surplus alone doesn't cover winter — whether your generation actually gets you through month by month, all year, shows in the monthly energy balance below.
of your electricity use, over the year
Solar
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Wind
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Solar generation—
Wind generation—
Total generation—
Household use—
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Water autonomy iThe rain you can harvest from the roof vs. what the group consumes, annual total. 100% doesn't mean the rain arrives when you need it: seasonality defines how much to store.
of your water use, annual total
Harvesting
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Demand
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Harvestable rain—
Household use—
Months covered iHow many of the 12 months the rain harvested from the roof manages to cover the group's demand. Seasonality defines how much to store during surplus months.—
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Food autonomy iAnnual calories for the group that you can produce with the available surface. Each enabled production system —garden, fruit trees, henhouse, aquaponics— adds up. Sources: CIESA/Fernando Pía, USDA, FAO.
of the group's annual calories
Proteins
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Carbs
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Fats
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Your land—
Base garden iBiointensive garden area to cover the group's vegetables: ~40 m² per person. It's only the first step; with more land you add fruit trees, hens, aquaponics, and more.—

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Each ring lap = 100% of the need. Color indicates how many times it covers it: 0–100% 100–200% 200–300% +300% Each full turn of the ring = 100% of what you need. More than one turn means the site produces more than you consume — the lighter tone marks that surplus.
Grid independence iHow many days a year, on average, the site powers itself with what the panels generate. It's the direct measure of autonomy: how much you can stop depending on the grid.
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Estimated electricity savings iAnnual solar generation × your rate. Indicative estimate to size the order of magnitude of payback; not financial advice.
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per year, at the given rate
Water to supply iHow much water is missing per month in the dry season, when rain isn't enough. It's not the size of one giant tank: it's the flow to bring in (truck, well) or reserve in the productive pit. A reasonable monthly-refill tank is enough.
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Sun-wind complementarity iIndicates whether wind blows stronger just when the sun drops (complementary, ideal: less battery) or both fall together. Measured by the seasonal correlation between radiation and wind.
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03Your scenario That's the result with conservative assumptions. Now adjust it to your life: who will live at this site and with what systems —panels, rainwater harvesting, arable land. It's not the abstract autonomy of the place, it's yours. The verdict recalculates with every change.

Pick a scenario to start: it loads typical people, surfaces and consumption for that case. It is only the starting point — you then fine-tune each value by hand and the verdict recalculates with every change.

Index—
Energy—% Water—% Food—% View diagnosis ↑

Energy

Photovoltaic and wind.

Water

Use per person per day
04The causes The reason behind the number: temperature, rain, radiation, wind, and climate control demand, month by month. This is the basis for any bioclimatic design decision, for those who want to go beyond the verdict.

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Mean annual temp. iAverage air temperature over the year (NASA POWER 2001–2020).
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Thermal amplitude iAverage difference between day and night. High amplitude favors thermal-mass strategies (massive walls).
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Annual rainfall iTotal precipitation depth accumulated over the year (mm). 1 mm = 1 liter per m².
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Average radiation iSolar energy reaching a horizontal surface per day. Determines photovoltaic potential.
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Sky clarity iShare of clear-sky radiation that actually arrives. Close to 1 = clear skies; low = frequent cloudiness.
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Average wind iAverage wind speed at 10 m. Guides wind potential and natural ventilation strategies.
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Optimal solar tilt iPanel tilt angle that maximizes annual generation at this latitude (NASA POWER). The tool already uses this optimum in the calculation, with nothing for you to measure.
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Passive comfort iApproximate percentage of months whose mean temperature falls within the comfort range (18–26 °C), with no need for mechanical heating or cooling.
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Energy —% Why the site gives this number: solar radiation, wind potential, generation mix, and climate control effort.

Solar radiation and sky clarity

Available solar energy (kWh/m²/day) and sky clarity — determines photovoltaic potential.

Wind potential iMean wind speed at 50 m height (NASA POWER), where a small turbine usually sits. The reference line marks ~5 m/s: above it, wind complements solar (green); below, it's not enough to generate usefully (gray).

Months with enough wind to supplement solar energy (threshold ~5 m/s).

Monthly energy balance iYour own generation (solar + wind) against use, month by month. Bars that reach the consumption line cover that month; those that don't fall into deficit. Real autonomy is measured this way — month by month — not as an annual average: one month's surplus doesn't carry over to another without an unfeasible seasonal battery.

Your generation vs. use, month by month — why autonomy is seasonal.

Climate-control effort and estimated energy iDegree-days: how far temperature strays from the 18 °C comfort point, summed per month. Bars down (blue) = cold to offset with heating; up (warm) = heat to dissipate. On the right, an estimate of annual heating energy for a well-insulated average home, in electricity, gas, and firewood equivalents.

How much the site demands heating or cooling, month by month.

Water —% Why the site gives this number: the site's climograph and monthly water balance —rain captured versus demand.

Climograph — temperature and precipitation

Temperature (°C) and monthly rainfall (mm) — the site's base bioclimatic reading.

Monthly water balance

Rain captured vs. group demand, month by month — where there's surplus and where there's deficit.

Food —% Why the site gives this number: which production systems your land enables —garden, fruit trees, henhouse, aquaponics, pond— and how much each contributes, modulated by the site's real climate favorability.

Reference yields, not a production guarantee: biointensive garden according to the Pía/CIESA method (4-9.3 kg/m²/year, 20 years of trials), aquaponics according to INTA Santa Fe (7-8 kg/m²/year), henhouse and pen at family backyard scale. Nutritional composition by broad category (USDA/FAO tables), not a site-specific dietary analysis.

Sun exposure The sun's path across the sky throughout the year, with the terrain's real horizon overlaid — not just the sun's geometric position, but what the surrounding relief actually reveals.

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Solar path: standard geometry (declination ±23.44° at the solstices, 0° at the equinox). Real horizon: Copernicus DEM profile in 24 directions, Argentina only — outside coverage, the path is shown without a horizon.

05What the territory will demand of you Six real constraints of the site —climate, water, soil, seismicity— so the project anticipates them, rather than ignoring them. Each data point has its source.
Frost iMonths with mean minimum temperature below 0 °C (NASA POWER, T2M_MIN). Frost affects crops, water installations, and heating demand.
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Extreme heat iMonths with mean maximum temperature above 32 °C (NASA POWER, T2M_MAX). Sustained heat raises cooling demand and shapes materials and ventilation.
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Likely snow iMonths with mean minimum below 0 °C and appreciable precipitation: conditions for precipitation to fall as snow. A climate probability, not a record of snowfall.
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Water stress iCombines annual rainfall with soil moisture (NASA POWER, GWETROOT). Shows how much pressure there is on water: the higher the stress, the more storage and care in use.
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Seismicity iHistorical seismic activity within 150 km, from the USGS catalog (global and free): number of M≥4.5 quakes since 2000 and largest magnitude since 1950. It shapes the structural system.
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Sea level rise (2100) iRisk that the site is affected by sea-level rise through 2100. It crosses the point's elevation (measured by satellite) with IPCC projections: in the high scenario the sea rises ~1 m, up to ~2 m with glacier collapse, not counting storm surges that add several meters more. Land a few meters above sea level is at risk; land at altitude isn't.
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Groundwater tables, drinking water quality, and detailed flooding have no reliable open source by coordinate. They require local hydrogeological surveying — part of the project's work.
06Strategy What to do with this territory: design guidance based on the site's climate family, and specific advice for its exact classification.
07The diagnosis is the beginning, not the project You've seen the verdict, its cause, what the site will demand of you, and how to respond. This is the moment to take it to a real project.

Autonomy is not bought finished. It is designed.

Save and compare your territories

Save this point and as many as you like — they stay in this browser — and compare their indexes against each other. To download the report (PDF/CSV) or get it by email, leave us your address.

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How we calculate

Every figure in this tool has a source and a time period. The index is an order-of-magnitude estimate to decide early whether a place deserves a serious study — not a project sizing.

How the index is built →
Weights: the 0–100 index combines energy (40%), water (35%), and food (25%) autonomy. Energy and water weigh more because they're the constraints that first condition whether a place is habitable.
What 100 means in each domain: in energy, that you generate in the year the same as you consume; in water, that you harvest in the year the same as your group uses; in food, that you produce the calories your group needs. None of the three has a ceiling: if you produce more than needed, the number shows it — 147% in food is a real surplus, not an error. That surplus doesn't mean you'll never fall short: real coverage, month by month (whether winter or the dry season is covered), shows in the energy and water balances below. For the combined index, each domain IS capped at 100 (one domain's surplus doesn't offset another's deficit).
Habitability: a site where living with passive autonomy is unfeasible — polar night, chronic sub-zero temperatures, no growing season — can't score high no matter how much seasonal surplus it averages out to. A habitability factor caps the index and states it: where active life support is required (heating, melting snow, artificial light), that's not autonomy.
Territory vs. scenario: with conservative assumptions, the number describes the PLACE's potential; once you adjust people and systems, it describes YOUR scenario. The territory's potential doesn't change with your program.
Where does the data come from? →
Solar radiation
NASA POWER — monthly satellite climatology 2001–2020 (CERES/MERRA-2). Global horizontal irradiance (ALLSKY_SFC_SW_DWN) and clear-sky (CLRSKY), queried live for the point. power.larc.nasa.gov
Temperature and wind
NASA POWER — mean, maximum, and minimum temperature (T2M), thermal amplitude, relative humidity (RH2M), and wind at 10 and 50 m (WS10M/WS50M), same 2001–2020 series.
Precipitation
NASA POWER — corrected precipitation (PRECTOTCORR), same 2001–2020 series. Harvest is computed over mean depth; real seasonality requires sizing storage.
Live conditions
Open-Meteo — current temperature, irradiance, humidity, wind, and rain. Real-time context; not the basis of the calculation. open-meteo.com
Climate classification
Köppen-Geiger — derived from the point's own monthly means of temperature and precipitation, according to the system's standard thresholds.
Geolocation
Google Maps (map and search) · Open-Meteo (elevation outside Argentina). No new keys: the site's own key is reused.
Relief and solar horizon (Argentina)
Copernicus GLO-30 DEM (ESA/Comisión Europea) — global elevation model, ~250m effective resolution at this site. It allows calculating the terrain's real horizon (sun hours at solstice), not just slope orientation. dataspace.copernicus.eu
Real surface water (Argentina)
JRC Global Surface Water (Comisión Europea) — historical water occurrence detected by satellite (Landsat, 1984–present). Replaces the topographic proxy with real data on where water actually was. global-surface-water.appspot.com
Rivers and streamflow (global)
GloFAS (Copernicus, vía Open-Meteo) — average streamflow of watercourses, global satellite reanalysis (~5 km). A ±10 km neighborhood is sampled and the maximum is taken (rivers are thin lines: the single cell can fall right next to the channel). This is the TERRITORY's water evidence beyond rainfall: meltwater valleys, river oases. open-meteo.com/flood-api
Sea level rise (2100)
IPCC AR6 (2021) — projected sea level rise by 2100, ~1m under high-emissions scenarios (up to ~2m accounting for accelerated glacier collapse). "Sea 2125" layer thresholds over terrain elevation; it doesn't model hydrological connectivity or point storm surge. ipcc.ch/report/ar6
Cities and roads (Argentina)
OpenStreetMap — populated places with declared population and main road network, community-verified collaborative data. Geofabrik extract. openstreetmap.org/copyright
Population density (Argentina)
GHS-POP (Comisión Europea/JRC) — estimated population per ~1km² cell, modeled by combining census data, satellite-detected buildings, and remote sensing (Global Human Settlement Layer, 2025). ghsl.jrc.ec.europa.eu
Land cover (Argentina)
ESA WorldCover (2021) — satellite classification of land cover (Sentinel-2, 10m), aggregated to ~80m for this analysis. It distinguishes forest, grassland, cropland, built-up, etc. esa-worldcover.org
Water use
Sphere Project (15 L) · OMS (20 L) · Gleick, P. (1996), "Basic Water Requirements for Human Activities", Water International 21(2): 83–92 (50 L) · W. Europe average (OECD).
Biointensive garden yield
Ing. Fernando Pía / CIESA — 20 years of trials: 600–1,400 kg of vegetables/year in 150 m² of net cultivation (4–9.3 kg/m²/year), with 2 hours of daily manual work.
Daily nutritional need
FAO / OMS — general adult reference: ~2,200 kcal, 55g protein, 70g fat, 290g carbohydrates per person per day. Not personalized by age, sex, or physical activity.
Nutritional composition of foods
USDA / FAO — food composition tables, averaged by broad category (vegetable, fruit, egg, fish, meat, dairy) for this estimate.
Calculation assumptions →
Solar: monthly generation = that month's irradiance × surface area × module efficiency (20%) × performance ratio (0.80). The % of energy autonomy is the annual generation/consumption ratio, uncapped (the surplus is real information). Separately, month by month, usable energy accumulates (the minimum between generation and consumption each month, with no carryover between seasons) to see whether that annual surplus actually covers the toughest month — see the energy balance — and not just the average.
Water: harvest = rainfall depth × roof area × catchment coefficient (0.80). 1 mm over 1 m² = 1 liter. SNOW (months averaging below zero) doesn't run off right away: the model banks it as a snowpack and adds it during thaw months, deducting wind and sublimation losses — where it never thaws, it's lost. Besides rainfall, the model cross-checks three pieces of TERRITORY water evidence: satellite river streamflow (GloFAS, ±10 km neighborhood), a mountain range with likely seasonal snow within 50 km (downstream meltwater, relief + elevation thermal gradient), and moist soil in a dry climate (groundwater the land gives away, NASA GWETROOT). A strong territorial source contributes water access capped at 85% — it requires catchment infrastructure and water rights, it isn't as direct as your own roof — and is disclosed in a note next to the number.
Food: each enabled production system (garden, orchard, henhouse, aquaponics, pen) contributes a reference yield in kg/year, modulated by the point's real CLIMATE FAVORABILITY (growing season by temperature, frost, aridity): no summer, no garden; no water, no crops or livestock. Territory water also counts: with a nearby river or meltwater, irrigation lifts the aridity constraint (the Nile valley has almost no rain and is the cradle of agriculture), and FISHING adds protein — and unlike the garden, cold doesn't rule it out: you can also fish under ice. The land aquatic system (350 m²) is resolved by real climate: AQUAPONICS (fish + plants) where the garden thrives, or AQUACULTURE alone (pond fish farming, cold-water trout) where plants don't grow but the water doesn't freeze solid — Patagonia, high mountains. Whichever yields more food is chosen; if neither is viable (no water, or a pond frozen year-round), it isn't enabled. It's converted to calories, protein, fat, and carbohydrates and compared against the group's annual need (FAO/WHO, ~2,200 kcal/person/day). The % of calories is the main indicator; it doesn't guarantee actual production. Declared limit: MARINE fishing and hunting (coasts without a river) isn't modeled yet.
Degree-days: 18 °C comfort base. HDD and CDD accumulate from monthly mean temperature × days of the month.
Wind: indicative estimate proportional to the cube of the 50 m wind speed; only to orient the mix, not to size.
Scope: order of magnitude for an early decision. It does not replace an executive project or a soil study.
What it doesn't model, and with what precision →
Doesn't model: fine-grained seasonal accumulation beyond the storage you declare, local shading from vegetation or buildings, real soil quality and depth, groundwater and aquifers, the terrain's hydrological connectivity, or urban and building regulations.
Climate resolution: satellite climatology has a cell of tens of kilometers: it captures the region well, not the microclimate of a single valley or hillside. Fine relief (Argentina) does come in through the DEM.
Why "order of magnitude": yields use generic efficiencies and conservative assumptions, without an on-site survey. It's useful to know whether a place deserves a serious study and which domain will be the limiting one — not to size the installation.
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