Where We Live
background
Extreme heat is now the deadliest weather-related hazard worldwide — yet its impacts are often invisible. In rapidly growing cities like Quezon City, Philippines or Campo Grande, Brazil, or Phoenix, Arizona, dense development, concrete surfaces, and limited green space amplify dangerous temperatures for vulnerable people.
To mark YouthMappers’ ten-year anniversary, volunteers across the globe are taking action. Through this mapping project, we aim to trace building footprints using the RapiD AI-assisted editor in OpenStreetMap. This ensures we have unit level demarcations to denote the households, schools, clinics, or workplaces where we live and experience heat. When combined with temperature and
land surface datasets, data on exposure and vulnerabilities, and local knowledge of solutions, these mapping contributions will help identify thermal hotspots and inform public health interventions, cooling centers, shade planning, and long-term resilience strategies.
We are excited to share that this effort has been recognized by the MacArthur Foundation as one of the top Proposals for their 100&Change Resilience competition. While we were not awarded the prize, we became part of the Bold Solutions Network, an encouraging recognition of the powerful potential of the movement to make a difference, with your help.
You can’t cool what you can’t see. Every building you trace helps researchers, city planners, and local communities better understand where heat risk is highest — and where solutions are needed most.
get started mapping
WHy we're mapping
When YouthMappers trace building footprints, it’s more than just drawing shapes on a map. You’re:
-
Ensuring unit-level data for households, schools, clinics, and workplaces where we experience heat
-
Helping reveal thermal hotspots when combined with temperature and land surface datasets
-
Guiding public health interventions, cooling centers, shade planning, and future resilience strategies
-
Helping reveal thermal vulnerability hotspots when combined with temperature and other datasets
-
Enabling researchers, city planners, and communities to see where heat risk is highest — and where solutions are needed most
Connecting to the SDGs
Every building you map contributes directly to global goals:
