Cities around the world are increasingly exposed to extreme heat, which poses serious risks to public health, infrastructure and livability. However, many cities struggle to plan and implement effective cooling interventions due to limited access to relevant, localized data and a lack of tools that support data-informed decision-making.

Cool Cities Lab addresses this gap by equipping city officials with actionable insights to identify, plan and advocate for interventions — such as tree planting or cool roofs — that reduce temperatures, improve thermal comfort and build resilience against extreme heat.

A first-of-its-kind platform, Cool Cities Lab was co-designed with city decision-makers and built on globally accessible open data to equip any city around the world with critical insights on heat risks and potential solutions.

With Cool Cities Lab, city officials can:

  • Facilitate impactful discussions with stakeholders using clear, actionable insights backed by robust data and visualizations.
  • Identify high-priority areas and design targeted interventions that deliver measurable results.
  • Estimate the cooling potential of a variety of heat-resilience interventions — including street trees, cool roofs and shade structures — prior to implementation.
  • Create compelling, ready-to-use maps and visualizations for official documents, grant proposals and presentations. 
  • Inform the creation of evidence-based policies and regulations that support cooling solutions and long-term climate resilience.
  • Leverage dynamic visualizations to inform and educate citizens, fostering support for cooling solutions and urban resilience initiatives.
  • Download datasets for further analysis offline.

Cool Cities Lab was developed by WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities in partnership with WRI's Data Lab, with support from Google.org and direct input from city officials and technical experts. The platform is designed to help governments develop heat plans, design cooling projects and translate insights into action. 

Join the Cool Cities Lab community to receive updates and let us know if you would like to see data for your city included: https://worldresourcesinstitute.typeform.com/ccl-launch