trusted models – no specialist software needed – scenario analysis – customisable – any city
CET helps cities to:
The City Explorer Toolkit (CET) is an interactive web-based tool, which helps planners to understand where best to create urban green spaces such as parks and blue spaces such as ponds, to ensure that benefits such as cooling on a hot day, improved air quality, and noise reduction are received by the people who need them most.
CET has been used in cities in four continents (see use cases map):
- Online version marked in red
- Models run offline marked in yellow
- Early testing of models marked in blue
Watch our video, which explains how CET allows city officials to compare different planning options and work out the best locations for beneficial green and blue spaces.
Watch this video to see how users can generate demand maps, supply maps, opportunity maps and summary information, supporting decision-making.
Working closely with Portsmouth City Council, we used City Explorer Toolkit to model cooling and air pollution benefits for two urban tree scenarios:
Results for PCC included an economic assessment of changes in air pollution exposure, and demographic breakdown of outcomes by wealth/poverty, gender and age.
Working with Sichuan Academy of Environmental Sciences, we modelled cooling and air pollution benefits for existing trees in Chengdu. The work included opportunity mapping to show the best locations for further tree planting. Click to read more
The toolkit uses models and spatial data to calculate the benefits of different green infrastructure and nature-based solutions to tackle challenges in cities such as heatwaves, air pollution and flood risk.
It also uses population and social data (e.g. age-groups, deprivation indicators) to work out which groups of people will benefit most from a particular option. For example, the elderly and infants are most likely to benefit from measures to improve air quality.
Users can use the toolkit to:
The toolkit builds on UKCEH’s many years’ experience of combining models, satellite and other data to help people make better decisions for the environment and people.
Work to develop the City Explorer Toolkit has been funded by the European Space Agency, Future Earth, NERC and EU Horizon projects, and the UKCEH Commercial Innovation Fund.
To stay informed of the Toolkit development, please sign up to our mailing list or contact cities@ceh.ac.uk.