(Slim) Shady

Making shade patterns visible
and actionable

When the city heats up, shade is the simplest relief.
It keeps our streets walkable, our playgrounds safe,
and offers comfort to the elderly and vulnerable among us.

This project maps where that shade exists, and where it's missing
(Slim) Shady: a smart take (slim means smart in Dutch) on narrow sidewalks, hot streets, and overcomplicated climate plans.
Shade, served with scientific rigour, and just a enough of an attitude to get things moving.

What the shade?

Shade is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce heat exposure in cities. It’s what keeps a walk bearable on a hot day. But not all streets are created equal, and until now, city planners haven’t had the tools to see where shade is missing, or how to provide it where it matters most.

Shade improves urban comfort by lowering Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT), the key driver of how hot we feel. Unlike air temperature, MRT can be directly shaped by urban design: trees, buildings, materials, and geometry. In fact, research shows that reducing radiation exposure through shade is often more effective than lowering air temperature alone.

This map shows the Shade Availability Index (SAI): the percentage of daytime intervals in which a sidewalk segment is sufficiently shaded, above a city-specific threshold (typically 30–50%). For Amsterdam, we evaluate intervals between 09:00 and 18:00 on the summer solstice. We classify SAI into four categories tailored to planning use: Poor (< 50%), Acceptable (50–70%), Very good (70–90%), and Excellent (≥ 90%). The approach draws on the Guidelines for Applying Quantitative Shade Indicators in Urban Planning in Israel (Or Aleksandrowicz et al., 2025).

How to use the map

Start with the overview to compare neighborhoods.
Click a neighborhood to zoom to sidewalk detail.
Color scale: amber → teal → light green → dark green.
Read the summary to see % of sidewalks by shade level.

Overview

Amsterdam neighborhoods colored by average sidewalk shade (SAI).

Neighborhood Neighborhood detail preview

Example neighborhood segments colored by shade level.

Not every sidewalk needs to be shaded, and this map doesn’t make that call. It’s meant as a practical tool to help planners, designers, and communities explore where targeted shade provision might have the most impact.

People & Projects

Who's behind the magic, and other goodies to explore

Lead Researcher

Lukas Beuster
Research Fellow · PhD Candidate
Senseable City Lab, MIT · 3D geoinformation, TU Delft

Supervision:
Hugo Ledoux (TU Delft)
Clara García‑Sánchez (TU Delft)
Fabio Duarte (MIT).
Titus Venverloo (MIT/AMS).

Related Work

Shady Amsterdam — a foundational student project on shade mapping in the city.
Monahan, Tsalapati, Gan, Gao & Andinasari (2024).
TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment.
Read the report
Supervised by: Hugo Ledoux & Lukas Beuster
Shade data generator (NL):
github.com/jsscmnhn/shady_amsterdam
Shade data generator (Global):
github.com/lukasbeuster/throwing_shade
Preprint — (Slim) Shady:
The relative role of buildings and trees in urban shade provision for pedestrians.
doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6966874/v1

Generously supported by: TU Delft (3D Geoinformation), MIT (Senseable City Lab), Senseable City Amsterdam, AMS Institute, and the City of Amsterdam.
Additional collaborators and co‑authors as named in the (Slim) Shady preprint.