electricsheepafrica/african-urban-heat-island-mapping

---
license: cc-by-4.0
tags:
- climate
- urban
- heat
- adaptation
- sub-saharan-africa
- synthetic
- environmental
- urban-heat-island
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
---

# African Urban Heat Island Mapping

A synthetic dataset of urban heat island (UHI) characteristics across 15 major African cities, designed for climate adaptation research and urban planning analysis.

## Overview

This dataset contains **150,000 synthetic records** covering urban heat island metrics for 15 major African cities across 3 scenarios (10,000 records per city per scenario). It is intended for use in training machine learning models for heat risk prediction, urban climate modeling, and adaptation planning.

## Cities

| City | Country |
|------|---------|
| Lagos | Nigeria |
| Nairobi | Kenya |
| Johannesburg | South Africa |
| Cairo | Egypt |
| Addis Ababa | Ethiopia |
| Dar es Salaam | Tanzania |
| Kinshasa | DR Congo |
| Accra | Ghana |
| Luanda | Angola |
| Abidjan | Ivory Coast |
| Kigali | Rwanda |
| Dakar | Senegal |
| Lusaka | Zambia |
| Maputo | Mozambique |
| Kampala | Uganda |

## Scenarios

- **baseline**: Current urban conditions as of 2015-2025
- **heat_amplification**: Projected intensification under warming conditions (+15% heat indicators)
- **green_infrastructure**: Modeled impact of expanded green infrastructure investments

## Variables

| Variable | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| `record_id` | Unique identifier (AFUHI-XXXXXXX) |
| `city` | City name |
| `country` | Country name |
| `year` | Year of observation (2015-2025) |
| `month` | Month (1-12) |
| `avg_surface_temp_c` | Average surface temperature (°C) |
| `urban_heat_island_intensity_c` | UHI intensity above rural baseline (°C), range 2-8°C |
| `vegetation_cover_pct` | Vegetation cover percentage |
| `building_density_index` | Building density index (0-1) |
| `impervious_surface_pct` | Impervious surface percentage |
| `population_density_per_km2` | Population density (per km²) |
| `green_space_pct` | Green space percentage |
| `industrial_heat_contribution` | Industrial heat contribution metric |
| `transport_heat_contribution` | Transport heat contribution metric |
| `cooling_degree_days` | Cooling degree days |
| `heatwave_days` | Number of heatwave days |
| `vulnerable_population_pct` | Vulnerable population percentage |
| `adaptation_investment_usd_millions` | Adaptation investment (USD millions) |
| `heat_stress_risk_score` | Composite heat stress risk score (0-100) |

## Data Files

- `data/baseline.csv` - Baseline scenario (150,000 records)
- `data/heat_amplification.csv` - Heat amplification scenario (150,000 records)
- `data/green_infrastructure.csv` - Green infrastructure scenario (150,000 records)

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

dataset = load_dataset("electricsheepafrica/african-urban-heat-island-mapping")
```

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{african_urban_heat_island_2025,
title={African Urban Heat Island Mapping Dataset},
author={Electric Sheep Africa},
year={2025},
license={cc-by-4.0}
}
```

## License

CC BY 4.0 - This is synthetic data generated for research and educational purposes.