Ourus · a decision story
Same city.
6° apart.
6° apart.
Two streets, minutes apart. The only difference is trees.
The heat
A city is never one temperature.
Leafy blocks stay cool. Paved blocks trap heat. Heat kills more people than any other weather.
Who gets the shade
The cool half was invested in.
When the city asked who wanted trees, the hottest neighborhoods were the least heard.
The task
One budget. 60,000 spots.
Which streets. Which species. Which blocks. More plans than any person can weigh.
The trade-off
Not every tree cools the same.
Cooling, cost, and what will actually survive the site.
What we do
Two answers. Both optimal.
Cheapest cooling stays in the easy half. Closing the gap pushes into the heat. The math will not choose. Someone has to.
The catch
Young trees die without care.
Planting is the cheap part. Watering decides what survives, and the hot half has the least of it.
The stress test
Ten summers. A thousand runs.
Drought, time, and the odds of survival, before a single tree goes in.
The result
Fewer trees. More shade that survives.
Funded watering. Spread species. Shade aimed where people stand.
32°C
shaded street
38°C
paved street
GOAL A · CHEAPEST COOLING
GOAL B · CLOSE THE GAP
YEAR 1/10 · RUN 001
Drought year
unwatered saplings gone by year five
Hotter neighborhoods
0.0°C
COOLHOT
Who the survey heard · 90% homeowners, mostly the cool half
Large shade
OAK · 40 YR
Cooling
Cost
Cools the most. Needs deep soil and open sky.
Medium
MAPLE · 25 YR
Cooling
Cost
Balanced. Fits most residential streets.
Ornamental
DOGWOOD · 15 YR
Cooling
Cost
Cheap and small. Fits under power lines.
BEFORE
38°C
AFTER
Shaded
Heat & canopy: Hoffman et al. 2020 (108 US cities), NOAA, Trust for Public Land · survival: Roman & Scatena, USDA Forest Service · engagement echoes a 2026 US city forestry plan. Composite city; outcomes illustrative.
Plans that hold.
Optimized by math. Stress-tested by ten hard summers.
OURUS.AI·CONTACT@OURUS.AI
An illustrative case built on public research, not a forecast for any real city, and not work we have done for anyone. We build for decisions like this: real budgets, real equity stakes, and a future history alone cannot predict.
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