Who can learn from whom? The geography of urban climate evidence

Who can learn from whom? The geography of urban climate evidence | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Who can learn from whom? The geography of urban climate evidence Andrew Sudmant, Egide Kalisa, Simon Montfort, Wenjia Cai, Shaurya Patel, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9268986/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Published research on climate change in cities is highly uneven, but cities are not equally isolated. We map the geography of urban climate evidence by combining a city-by-domain evidence matrix with domain-specific similarity spaces, allowing us to distinguish direct evidence from the evidence cities can access through comparable analogues. Across vulnerability, adaptation, mitigation, and governance, case study evidence is sparse and concentrated in a limited set of region × type cells, with adaptation consistently the thinnest domain. Yet accessible evidence is broader than direct evidence alone would suggest. Forty-five percent of cities have no direct evidence, but 95.5% of those cities can access analogue experience by drawing from peers and all can do so when learning pools widen to regional or global peers. The largest gains come from widening within regions across city types rather than moving immediately to global pools of evidence. At the same time, the supplier side of the system is highly concentrated: evidence-rich hubs account for a disproportionate share of published and accessible climate action knowledge. These findings show that urban climate learning is structured, directional, and only partly open. By moving from evidence geography to learning geography, the paper identifies where cities can credibly learn from others and where new primary evidence remains most urgently needed. climate change learning cities Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9268986","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":614702942,"identity":"82847b9e-7073-4d52-b98a-2936f71f0cb6","order_by":0,"name":"Andrew Sudmant","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA+ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACAyidACJsGBgOIHjEaElII13LYcJa+Gc3b/vwsY3B3uB4duLnwh/n5fgOMD/8wNiWhlOLxJ1jxTNntjEkbjjzdrP0jITbxpIH2IwlGNtycDvrRo4xM+82hgSDG7kbpHkSbiduOMBgxsDYVoFThzxIy99tQIfdyN38myfhXP2GA+zf8GoxAGlh3MbAuOFG7jagLQcSDA7wgGzB7TDDG2nFjL3/JBJnnnm7zZonLdlw5mGeYomEc7i9L3cjeTPDjzM29nzHczff5rGxk+c73r7xw4eyZNzehwAJJDYzA4GIHAWjYBSMglFAEAAAmthWiBEi13gAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Edinburgh","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Andrew","middleName":"","lastName":"Sudmant","suffix":""},{"id":614703097,"identity":"9f3b2a02-0679-4c9c-8741-38ca52abca19","order_by":1,"name":"Egide Kalisa","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Western Ontario","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Egide","middleName":"","lastName":"Kalisa","suffix":""},{"id":614703657,"identity":"9e8d68e7-3ac9-4340-9490-61de86f2cb11","order_by":2,"name":"Simon Montfort","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Simon","middleName":"","lastName":"Montfort","suffix":""},{"id":614703658,"identity":"b51b95ab-a8db-4b8f-b454-6a00558749e0","order_by":3,"name":"Wenjia Cai","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tsinghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wenjia","middleName":"","lastName":"Cai","suffix":""},{"id":614703869,"identity":"e67b9097-9730-48c3-900e-04ef54accc61","order_by":4,"name":"Shaurya Patel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Ahmedabad University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shaurya","middleName":"","lastName":"Patel","suffix":""},{"id":614703870,"identity":"bc8939c9-e360-4c17-ac9e-391cac75a75a","order_by":5,"name":"Felix Creutzig","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Felix","middleName":"","lastName":"Creutzig","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-30 15:18:20","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9268986/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9268986/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105904153,"identity":"4390ac7f-ee0e-49ad-9a92-f0f39ab6b931","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-01 10:05:13","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":736583,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Learningdraft.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9268986/v1_covered_5d1676ec-6ee5-4f60-83a9-0a4ae4b6db76.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eWho can learn from whom? 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