From citizens to satellites to aircraft: What are emerging sources of data for urban climate adaptation?

Abstract

Cities are increasingly vulnerable to the intensifying effects of climate change, particularly in the form of heatwaves and the phenomenon of urban heat islands. The CityCLIM project aims to address these risks by leveraging emerging data sources — citizen science, satellite-based Earth Observation (EO), and airborne-based EO — to collect, transform, and provide climate information. This accessible, actionable knowledge is a critical precondition for diverse stakeholders to identify priority areas and implement effective risk mitigation measures. Through citizen engagement, the project democratises climate data and sensors, while fostering collaborative strategies between citizens and city administration. The integration of satellite and airborne data further aids in decision-making, offering high-resolution land surface temperature (LST) maps that underpin urban planning and public health responses. Despite challenges such as data privacy concerns and the need for technical capacity among users, the project demonstrates the transformative potential of these emerging data sources in bridging knowledge gaps in climate action related knowledge that could be taken up by various stakeholders such as urban municipality and policymakers. Ultimately, CityCLIM not only addresses gaps in climate knowledge generation but also supports stakeholders to implement effective adaptation strategies, reinforcing the imperative for continual innovation in climate data methodologies to address the complexities of urban climate resilience.