Mapping Scenarios and Estimating the Potential for Heat-Resilient Infrastructure in Cities

The World Resources Institute introduces a framework for planning passive cooling infrastructure in cities using OpenUrban, a 1-meter resolution urban land-use and land-cover dataset. By combining OpenUrban with remotely sensed data on albedo, tree canopy, and temperature, the framework generates three implementation scenarios—technical, achievable, and program—for trees, cool roofs, reflective pavements, and shade structures. The tool is designed to be city-agnostic and low-burden, requiring no local data inputs and providing both area-wide potential indicators and spatial simulation maps to support policy and planning.

• The framework utilizes OpenUrban, a new 1-meter resolution urban land-use and land-cover (LULC) dataset derived from free global sources like OpenStreetMap, Overture Maps, and ESA WorldCover. It has been validated with 93% accuracy in the United States and 83% accuracy globally across 16 cities and eight world regions.
• The framework generates three nested scenario levels for four passive cooling interventions: trees, cool roofs, reflective pavements, and shade structures. These levels include 'technical' (maximum physically feasible), 'achievable' (benchmarked to the city's own highest-performing areas), and 'program' (constrained by specific policy objectives).
• The framework produces two types of outputs: 'potentials', which are area-wide indicators of changes in surface characteristics (such as albedo or tree cover) under full implementation, and 'scenario maps', which are spatial simulations of where new infrastructure could be placed.
• The methodology is designed to be low-burden and city-agnostic, requiring no local data inputs and utilizing open-source code available on GitHub. It has been developed in collaboration with city officials in over 20 cities across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Mapping Scenarios and Estimating the Potential for Heat-Resilient Infrastructure in Cities. https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-scenarios-and-estimating-potential-heat-resilient-infrastructure-cities

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Mapping Scenarios and Estimating the Potential for Heat-Resilient Infrastructure in Cities. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-scenarios-and-estimating-potential-heat-resilient-infrastructure-cities.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Mapping Scenarios and Estimating the Potential for Heat-Resilient Infrastructure in Cities |url=https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-scenarios-and-estimating-potential-heat-resilient-infrastructure-cities |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendmapping, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Mapping Scenarios and Estimating the Potential for Heat-Resilient Infrastructure in Cities}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-scenarios-and-estimating-potential-heat-resilient-infrastructure-cities}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }