Reimagining urban climate data systems
Toronto produces a great deal of climate data, but much of it does not reflect the experiences of the communities most affected by climate change, or does not reach them in a form they can use. Projects in this area examine the climate information that already exists in the region, identify where it falls short, and work with partners to improve it – sometimes by producing new information, and sometimes by changing how existing information is shared and used.
- Bay Street Climate Monitor – Our 2024 report found that eighteen Toronto banks, pension funds, and asset managers financed emissions nearly twice Canada’s national total. The findings prompted a City Council motion in 2025 and led to continuing work on climate finance in Canada. News →
- Flood Data Equity – A framework and workshop process that helps municipal staff, conservation authorities, and community groups evaluate together how flood information in the GTA is produced, shared, and used, and set goals for improving it. News →
- Ontario Flood History – Records of past floods underpin how flood risk is modelled, mapped, and planned for. This project uses historical newspapers and archives to build a longer inventory of floods across Ontario and to document the gaps in the record.
Building just data infrastructures
Equitable climate action necessitates building new data and information infrastructures. Projects in this area are working towards the development of open and collaborative platforms and tools for producing climate data, evaluating the infrastructures that already exist, and creating collective capacities to gather and engage with the information that communities across the GTA need.
- Marble – Accessible, cloud-based tools for analyzing large climate and Earth-observation datasets, designed for a broad range of users rather than for specialists alone.
- Toronto Hazard Reconnaissance – A pilot team for the GTA, funded through the University of Toronto’s XSeed program with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, developing protocols with community partners to document how floods and other hazards affect underserved communities, including impacts on health, work, and schooling that conventional damage assessments leave out. News →
- Evaluating AI for the Environment – With Earth Genome and Development Seed, an interview study of how environmental organizations are building and evaluating AI tools in practice, published as an ongoing series. News →
Public engagement, co-creation, and citizen science
Communities living with climate change already know a great deal about it. Our participatory projects work with residents, artists, and organizers to document local experiences of climate change and to bring them into conversation with official data. Often the relationships and skills built along the way matter as much as the maps and datasets produced.
- Toronto Water Atlas – A collection of maps engaging the region’s relationships to water, made over a year of workshops with artists, scientists, and community members. Launched in 2026 with an exhibition at Massey College. News →
- Counter-Mapping Urban Heat – Workshops in which residents and frontline workers compare the City’s heat alerts and heat maps with their own experiences of extreme heat, and co-design more equitable, community-centred heat information. News →
Communication, education, and collaboration
Much of our work is convening. Through a summer school, a data summit, workshops, and a growing network of partners, we bring together students, city staff, community organizers, and artists to develop shared understandings of climate change in the region.
- Toronto Climate Data Summit – A February 2026 gathering of researchers, practitioners, artists, and community groups working on climate and data across Southern Ontario. News →
- Ontario Climate Risk Workshop – A two-day workshop under the 2024 Minden Symposium that brought together over 100 participants from across sectors, with a 2025 report setting out Ontario’s priority climate risks and research needs. News →
- Toronto Climate Summer School – A six-week, full-credit undergraduate course each May and June, open to students from any program, with research projects supervised by faculty and community partners. News →
For the latest from these projects, see News. To work with us, see Connect.