2.1Surface temperature layer
Raster or polygon layer
Land surface temperature for the blocks inside your boundary, from the season's thermal pass. It opens in ArcGIS or QGIS and sits under your block, parcel or tract boundaries.
Find the surface behind the hottest block.
Seasonal thermal and multispectral imagery links surface temperature to roof, pavement and canopy, block by block, so the cooling budget goes where the material is making the heat.
- GSD
- 10–30 m (Wide)
- Cadence
- Seasonal
- Platform
- Wide-swath satellite
- Spectral
- Multispectral + thermal
No. 01The job today
One red map, and a budget meeting
Most cities already own a heat map. It came off a public thermal scene, or out of a consultant's heat vulnerability study, and it covers the whole city in one color ramp. It tends to light up the same neighborhoods, and the planner who writes the heat chapter of the climate adaptation plan gets the same question in the room: fine, but what do we do on that block?
The map can't answer. Hot is a symptom. A dark low-slope roof on a warehouse, a surface lot with no shade, a strip of bare ground, a street with no canopy: each one reads red, and each one wants a different treatment. A cool roof incentive does nothing for a parking lot. Street trees do little for a flat membrane roof two stories up.
So the cooling money gets spread. Some of it follows the equity screen, some follows whoever phoned the council office last summer, and some is divided evenly so nobody can complain. The planner knows it is a guess. They just have no layer that says what each hot block is made of.
This offer adds that layer. Same season, same city, with the material driving the heat written next to each reading.
No. 02What you get
What comes back each season
One delivery per seasonal pass over your city boundary, in files a GIS office and a budget memo can both open.
2.2Material classification
Polygon layer
Roof, pavement and canopy shares for each block, from the multispectral bands. Read it next to the temperature layer to see which surface is carrying the heat.
2.3Priority list
CSV
The hottest blocks ranked, each paired with the material driving the reading. Paste it into the worksheet behind the cooling-investment chapter.
2.4Season over season
Layer comparison
From the second pass on, each block shows how it read in the last season. You can see how a block's reading has shifted since the last pass. It does not say why, or what a program contributed.
No. 03
How it works
3.1Area in
Send your city boundary as a shapefile or GeoJSON, plus the block, parcel or tract boundaries you want the results joined to.
3.2Imagery
We pick the clearest thermal and multispectral pass of the season over your boundary.
3.3Analysis
Roof, pavement and canopy are read from the multispectral bands, then each class is tied to the temperature read for the same block.
3.4Delivery
The temperature layer, the material layer and the priority list. We set the delivery date against your plan update or budget calendar at the start, and walk you through the top of the list on a call.
No. 04Where it fits
Where it fits in your workflow
For the cooling-investment chapter
Use the priority list to decide which blocks get which treatment first. Where roofs dominate the reading, a reflective roof program is the candidate. Pavement-heavy blocks point to shade structures or surface changes, and those short of canopy point to planting.
The treatment, the cost and the expected effect stay your call, and your urban forester's. The layer says where the heat concentrates and what sits underneath it. It does not say what a fix would do.
No. 05
Limits
Limit 1
Block scale, not roof scale
At 10–30 m a pixel is wider than most single houses. The map reads a block or a large roof, parking lot or plaza. It does not read one building, and a mixed block comes back as shares of each material.
Limit 2
Clear sky only
A usable thermal read needs a clear-sky pass. A cloudy season can push the pass later or leave gaps, and gaps are marked as gaps.
Limit 3
Surface, not air
Land surface temperature is how hot the roof or pavement is. It is not the air temperature a resident feels, and it is not a forecast.
Limit 4
Seasonal, not daily
One pass per season, timed to your calendar. There is no daily or real-time thermal monitoring, and a heat wave lasting a week will not show up as its own reading.
Limit 5
Not an intervention model
It does not estimate how much a cool roof, a tree or a shade structure would lower temperature. It shows where and what, never how much.
Limit 6
No health data
This maps surface conditions. It carries no illness, mortality or emergency-call data, and makes no health claim about any block.
No. 06
Who it's for
For
- Climate adaptation and sustainability planners at a city government writing the heat chapter of an adaptation plan
- Urban foresters and parks planners deciding where the next planting goes
- Resilience offices building the case for a cooling line in the capital improvement plan
Not for
- Teams that want hourly or daily heat readings, or a heat-wave alert service
- Teams who need per-building roof assessment, or a structural or energy audit of a roof
- Health departments looking for heat illness risk scores
- Modelers who need a simulated temperature reduction for a specific intervention
No. 07FAQ
Questions from the planning office
Can this show which blocks have the worst heat-related health outcomes?
No. It maps surface temperature and material. Health outcomes come from your public health team's data, and the two layers can be overlaid in your GIS.
What resolution is the thermal read at?
Wide-swath, 10–30 m. That is block level, not individual roof precision.
How often is it updated?
Once per season, so you can see how the pattern changes across the year. It is not daily.
Does cloud cover affect the thermal read?
Yes. A usable thermal read needs a clear-sky pass. If the season is cloudy we tell you where the gaps are and what the next window looks like.
Can it tell us how much a cool roof would lower temperature?
No. It shows where material-linked heat is concentrated. Modeling the effect of a specific treatment is outside this offer.
How do we check it against what we know?
Pick a few blocks where your team already knows the roofs and lots, such as a distribution center district or a school campus. Compare our material classes and ranking with what you know on the ground, then decide whether the list is good enough to plan with.
Will it load into our GIS?
It comes as layers your GIS opens and a CSV for the budget worksheet, joined to the block, parcel or tract boundaries you send. We don't write into your systems directly.
Who owns the results and the imagery?
Ownership and licence terms for the deliverables and the underlying imagery are written into the agreement before anything is ordered. If your city attorney needs to see them, ask early.
How is it bought and priced?
The quote depends on the size of your city boundary and the number of seasons. Tell us how your city buys professional services and we'll fit the scope to that process.
Put this season's heat on the record.
Send us your city boundary and the date your plan update or budget is due. We'll come back to you on timing.
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