Urban Heat Democratization · Research wiki

Civic Starter Guide

A plain-language route from a local heat question to a responsible next step—built for residents, educators, advocates, and public teams.

Start with a decision, not a dashboard

Bring one question a public group could act on: which routes, public spaces, or neighborhoods should we investigate first for cooling access during extreme heat? The platform can help make a pattern visible; it does not decide what a community needs.

Use the workspace in four moves

1. See the pattern: open a city and inspect the boundary, layers, and cooling-access context.
2. Read the evidence label: identify the source, date, scale, and limitation before interpreting a result.
3. Add local knowledge: ask people who know the place about shade timing, unsafe crossings, indoor conditions, maintenance, access, and missing places.
4. Choose the next evidence step: a site visit, updated local data, accessible public meeting, technical review, or monitored pilot.

Starting a new city

On the Cities page, use a preconfigured city starter to fill the repeatable identity and study context. Then add a valid local boundary GeoJSON. Thermal layers, spectral overlays, costs, and local findings remain visibly unregistered until they are actually supplied and reviewed. This reduces setup work without turning a starter into a false claim of local evidence.

End every meeting with five records

Write down the question, evidence used, uncertainty, people who must review it, and next action. That small record makes the work easier to share, challenge, and improve.

For the maintained repository guide, read the Civic Starter Guide. Then open the Cities workspace to begin.