About the data

The database collects heat-related actions from US planning documents, one row per action. Each row records what the action is, who is responsible, what the plan expected it to achieve, and a link back to the source document so you can read it in context.

What we searched

Plans were identified through systematic searches across these categories:

• Extreme heat plans, at state and major county or city level
• Hazard mitigation plans, at state and major county or city level
• Climate action and sustainability plans, at state level
• Resilience plans, at state level
• Emergency response, emergency operations, urban forestry and comprehensive plans — in progress, and not yet complete

We also drew on Georgetown’s Adaptation Clearinghouse for city and county climate and resilience planning documents.

How actions are coded

Every action carries at least one tag, and may carry any number of more specific sub-tags. Sub-tags sit beneath a single parent tag, so filtering by a tag returns everything coded beneath it as well. Tags describe the action itself — not the issue it addresses or the impact it expects.

Blank fields mean the source document did not say. They are not zeros, and they do not mean the action lacks that attribute.

What it leaves out

Coverage is uneven. Rural areas and smaller population centres are under-represented, and emergency operations and urban forestry plans are not yet fully included. A place missing from the database has not necessarily done nothing about heat — it may simply not have published a plan we could find.

Actions are recorded as the plan stated them. Inclusion here is not evidence that an action was funded, implemented, or effective.

Corrections

If you know of a plan we have missed, or you find an action recorded incorrectly, write to ath79@cornell.edu.