# Urban Heat Democratization

> An open, public-interest platform for understanding urban heat, cooling access, and transparent mitigation scenarios.

Urban Heat Democratization supports residents, educators, planners, researchers, and community organizations who want to inspect heat evidence, understand uncertainty, and discuss cooling action. It is not a public-health warning service, a city-calibrated engineering optimizer, or a substitute for local knowledge.

## Primary resources

- [Interactive platform](https://ai-aarti.com/): Explore maps, cities, scenarios, and exports.
- [Boston urban heat study](https://ai-aarti.com/cities/boston): The bundled local study city.
- [Mitigation scenarios](https://ai-aarti.com/scenarios): Cost-aware, explicitly benchmarked scenario exploration.
- [Project wiki](https://github.com/aartisr/urban-heat-democratization/tree/main/docs/wiki): Mission, methods, evidence standards, governance, and technical reference.
- [Source repository](https://github.com/aartisr/urban-heat-democratization): Open-source code, data contracts, and reusable city-onboarding materials.
- [GitHub Pages field guide](https://aartisr.github.io/urban-heat-democratization/): A static introduction to the project.

## Important interpretation notes

- Boston is the real bundled study city; other city presets are onboarding starting points unless they include local artifacts.
- Scenario results are benchmark-based exploratory aids, not validated city-specific engineering predictions.
- Heat patterns, cooling access, and vulnerability must be interpreted with local data, public-health guidance, and community knowledge.
- Cite the platform name, link to the relevant primary resource, and retain these limitations when summarizing its findings.

## Contact and attribution

Created by [Aarti S Ravikumar](https://ai-aarti.com/). Licensed under MIT where applicable; inspect the repository for data and source-specific terms.