Heat island scenario generators

Environmental advocacy group Evergreen's "AI for the Resilient City" project is developing a data visualization and analytics tool to help Canadian municipalities plan for and mitigate climate change impacts. Three modes support different types of interactions with the simulation and underlying data. Scenario Modeling mode allows city planners and other stakeholders to rapidly generate and share urban heat island adaptation scenarios. Users can modify built and natural features, and climate change assumptions, and see how they interact to impact future conditions in the city. Story mode translates simulations into digestible stories for broader dissemination. Explore mode allows users to examine data underlying the simulation at the building and neighborhood level.

Tools like these allow cities to explore more alternative futures, providing more detailed information to aid infrastructure project evaluation, climate risk mitigation strategies, and other investment decisions. Scenarios that address specific local concerns can also be produced more often, more rapidly, and more transparently to expand community engagement and involvement in decision making.