We don't just study cities.
We help cool them.
Machine learning and satellite imagery, mapping urban heat islands and turning them into greener, cooler places to live.
EcoAção Brasil is an independent organization using technology to solve environmental challenges, transforming the relationship between people and the cities we share.
The values behind the work.
Sustainability
We work to create greener and more ecological cities.
Collaboration
Change happens when we work together.
Transparency
We act with integrity and responsibility.
Education
Knowledge is the basis for real and lasting change.
Innovation
We believe in the power of technology to transform environment and society.
Resilience
We overcome challenges with determination.
A machine learning assessment of intra-urban thermal anomalies.
Urban Heat Islands make entire cities warmer than surrounding countryside, but the real inequity hides at the block level. Two neighborhoods a few streets apart can feel sharply different because of how much asphalt, tree cover and airflow each one has.
These intra-urban heat islands (IUHI) and cool islands (IUCI) are what the Tocantins Framework is built to detect and measure. Using 40 years of Landsat data and a two-stage machine learning pipeline, it scores every anomaly independently on severity and impact, so interventions go exactly where they are needed.
Two people living just a few blocks apart may experience different microclimates, yet most urban heat island studies report a single average for an entire city.
Statistical extremes
Flag the 2% of pixels with the highest or lowest deviation from the city mean using a Z-score threshold of ±2.0, capturing only genuine outliers, not normal urban variation.
Machine learning
A Random Forest model trained on NDVI, NDBI, surface albedo and emissivity confirms whether each flagged pixel is a genuine thermal anomaly or a statistical artefact.
Only pixels meeting both criteria are classified as true anomalies.
Severity Score
intensity × extentQuantifies the anomaly core: the thermal intensity of the hottest or coolest pixels multiplied by the area they cover. High severity means a concentrated, extreme thermal signature.
Impact Score
intensity × area × continuityQuantifies the Extended Anomaly Zone: the wider thermal footprint including adjacent areas influenced by the anomaly core. High impact means the effect spreads across many city blocks.
of the Impact Score's variance was explained by the Severity Score in our analysis of 122 anomalies across Palmas, confirming that the two scores capture genuinely different dimensions of urban thermal stress.
$pip install tocantins-frameworkUrbanAI
Predicting the city’s future, so we know exactly where to cool it.
Predict
Trained on decades of satellite data, UrbanAI forecasts how a city will grow and warm in the years ahead.
Pair
Its forecasts meet the Tocantins Framework’s measured thermal anomalies on one shared map of the city.
Prioritize
Every possible intervention is ranked by Cooling Return on Investment, so resources go where they cool the most.
The people behind EcoAção.
Meet our team of developers and researchers who are working to make EcoAção a reality.
Honoring our former volunteers.
EcoAção exists because of the people who gave their time, energy and care. We carry their work forward, and we keep their names close.
- Alexandre Costa dos Santos
- Anna Vitoria Mauricio
- Diego Jose Figarella Urbaneja
- Giovanna Vitória de Godoi Augusto
- Isabela Nunes Toniolo
- Luiz Filipe Seabra de Marco
- Yasmin Bolitto Romano
Work on what matters.
Join the volunteers building real climate technology for cities: researchers, developers and communicators. It's remote and flexible, around four hours a week, working on open science with measurable impact alongside people from some of the world's best universities.
Volunteer role · up to 4 hours / week · rolling admissions, year-round.
Research
Urban heat islands, satellite data and machine learning analysis
Software
Platform engineering, data pipelines and the UrbanAI system
Communication
Storytelling, design and community outreach
Let’s talk.
Questions, ideas, or want to join? Leave your details and our team will get back to you.