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Layer Methodology

Heat Islands

Thermal surface classes that expose where the urban fabric holds more heat.

SnapshotMontreal

Map Role

Surface heat intensity zones linked to canopy gaps and impervious cover.

What It Shows

This layer classifies surface heat conditions into thermal bands such as fresh, cool, neutral, hot, and extreme. It is used directly in heat-risk exploration and downstream planting-priority scoring.

Sources

  • Montreal municipal 2023 satellite heat-island snapshot
  • Multi-city heat-island coverage remains in ETL and publication backlog

Method

  1. 1.Load the published Montreal heat-island polygons.
  2. 2.Normalize thermal classes into a shared six-band scheme used by the map legend.
  3. 3.Publish the result as GeoJSON for choropleth rendering and downstream scoring.

Refresh Cadence

Snapshot ETL. Refresh when new heat-island source vintages are processed.

Coverage

Montreal-only public snapshot at the moment. Other study areas should be treated as blocked until broader publication lands.

Key Fields

class

Normalized thermal class used for map styling and derived scoring

Caveats

  • The currently published public asset is Montreal-only.
  • This is a surface-condition layer, not a direct human health outcome model.
  • Cross-city comparison is not valid until multi-city heat snapshots are published.