Open-source CLI tool maps urban heat islands using Landsat, OpenStreetMap, and census data
A developer has released heatriskmap, a free, open-source Python command-line tool designed to help municipalities identify urban heat islands and thermal vulnerability without a dedicated GIS team. The tool calculates land surface temperature (LST), urban heat island intensity (UHI), and a heat vulnerability index (HVI) using only publicly available data from Landsat satellites, OpenStreetMap, and local census files. It was built to address a gap in the market, as existing tools are either commercial, unmaintained, or built for single cities, while no maintained open-source solution for any municipality was found in a GitHub search conducted in August 2026. The HVI weights thermal exposure at 50%, lack of tree cover at 25%, and vulnerable population share at 25%, outputting results as GeoTIFF and GeoJSON files. The project currently requires users to manually supply satellite imagery due to credential restrictions on USGS and Google Earth Engine, with automated scene download listed as a future milestone.
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