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Getting the most out of heat data

Rising temperatures threaten the health of people and the natural world, contributing to increased mortality, drought, habitat loss, and economic stress1. The frequency of extreme heat events is increasing in the UK, with heatwaves like those in 2018 and 2020 expected to occur every two years by 20502. As such, heat risk is one of the highest priorities for adaptation in the UK over the next five years1.

The Innovation team at Ordnance Survey (OS) have partnered with the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) to provide accessible, evidence-based solutions to tackle heat-related challenges. By enhancing data usability, we hope to facilitate more effective analysis, and provide insight for targeted heat adaptation.

However, in order to achieve this goal and best support your decision-making process, we need to gather more knowledge about your potential use cases for heat data. For inspiration, we've illustrated some ideas (below) that show what's possible by combining data from OS and NCEO. Collaboration is key to the success of this project, so we’re offering early access to some of NCEO’s heat data layers for you to explore. To access the raw data, you will first be asked to fill out a short survey that will help us learn more about how you would like to use heat data.

Access Data

Case Studies

OS has curated a series of mockups that use heat data with our products to inform different decisions surrounding urban heat islands. They demonstrate how heat data might be used in the real world to focus investment, highlight problem areas, and monitor solutions.


Identifying Populations at Risk

Our case study in Plymouth, UK, highlights regions of the city that have a higher deprivation score, combined with a higher heat discomfort index.

This could be used to:

  • Identify where cool spaces or areas of refuge are needed in order to protect vulnerable communities during heatwaves.
  • Target education campaigns about heat risk.

Identifying Infrastructure at Risk

Here we combine OS AddessBase Premium with NCEO's discomfort index to show which buildings in Plymouth may be impacted the most by the urban heat island (UHI) effect.

This could be useful for targeting buildings that require adaptation, such as where to retrofit green or cool roofs.

By supplementing this data with OS Topographic Area, we could also determine available roof space and estimate installment costs.

Monitoring Change

The 16 day repeat cycle of the satellite data, processed by NCEO, means it can be beneficial for monitoring:

  • The success of ongoing adaptation projects and strategies (e.g. observation of change following implementation of urban greening).
  • Seasonal and annual variations. This is particularly useful given that the intensity of the UHI effect varies depending on season and time of day, with most pronounced effects occurring at night and during the summer (Macintyre et al., 2021).

Visualising Greenspace

Greenspaces with trees alleviate the UHI effect. In this illustration, we have combined NCEO's discomfort index with OS Greenspace to understand the relationship between greenspaces and discomfort. This could be used to:

  • Inform decisions about where to plant trees in order to most efficiently reduce discomfort.
  • Monitor tree planting projects over time to ensure that these programs are working as intended.