UCRI Method
A transparent screening index, not a black box.
UCRI is a tract-level planning screen for Los Angeles County. It combines canopy deficit, heat exposure, impervious surface, social vulnerability, and environmental burden into one documented priority signal.
2,498
LA County 2020 tracts loaded
2,251
fully scored and ranked
244
provisional records
3
not scored / offshore
Formula
The current UCRI weighting
Each component is normalized to a 0-100 percentile across the scored LA County tract sample, where higher means a stronger risk contribution. The final score is a weighted sum.
UCRI = 0.25*CDS + 0.25*HES + 0.15*ISS + 0.20*SVS + 0.15*EJS
CDS
Canopy Deficit Score
Tree canopy need
25%
HES
Heat Exposure Score
Summer land-surface heat
25%
ISS
Impervious Surface Score
Paved and built surface
15%
SVS
Social Vulnerability Score
CDC/ATSDR SVI context
20%
EJS
Environmental Justice Score
CalEnviroScreen burden
15%
Method details
How the score is produced
This page is intentionally plain about the current method. It is strong enough for screening and comparison; it is not a claim of parcel-level engineering certainty.
Source normalization
Raw source values are joined to 2020 census tracts by GEOID, summarized at tract scale, and converted to within-county percentile scores so unlike units can be combined.
Missing-data handling
Fully scored tracts require all five layers. Records with missing contextual layers are labeled provisional or insufficient and excluded from the official 2,251-tract ranking.
Confidence tiers
Confidence is a visible output, not a hidden footnote. Tract-level scores support screening, prioritization, and comparison; field checks remain required before siting projects.
Public vs proprietary
The public site ships safe tract-level score records, report outputs, source metadata, and simplified geometry. The full master dataset, QA files, and private pipeline artifacts are controlled separately.
Confidence
What the labels mean
The platform avoids pretending that every tract has the same evidentiary strength.
All five input layers are present; confidence is still capped because tract-scale screening is not parcel-scale validation.
One or more required contextual layers are missing; the tract is excluded from the official fully scored ranking.
A visible estimate can be shown from measured layers, but it is labeled and excluded from the official ranking.
Offshore or non-land records are locked rather than forced into a numeric score.
Validation status
Proof, limits, and what still needs review
A trustworthy climate-tech product should be explicit about what has been verified and what still needs independent validation.
Current proof
2,498 LA County tract records loaded; 2,251 fully scored; component bars sum to the published UCRI score; UCRI LA v1.0 uses a documented mixed-vintage planning baseline.
Next validation
Sensitivity testing, rank-stability checks, comparison against Tree Equity Score, ECOSTRESS or local heat layers, and expert review of reports.
Known limits
Tract-scale screening cannot identify plantable parcels, ownership, underground utilities, irrigation feasibility, or final project cost.
Positioning
What is novel here
The index components are familiar. The product value is the workflow: tract search, live refresh, grounded explanation, year-by-year comparison, and export-ready planning language.
Tree Equity Score
Strong equity/canopy benchmark. Canopulse differs by adding heat, imperviousness, live tract refresh, and report workflow.
i-Tree
Excellent for ecosystem services and tree-benefit modeling. Canopulse is a tract-level prioritization and reporting layer, not a tree inventory model.
CalEnviroScreen
Authoritative California environmental-burden index. Canopulse uses it as one component, not as a replacement.
Heat maps / canopy maps
Useful single-layer evidence. Canopulse combines multiple layers into a traceable screening memo.
Use the method on a real tract.
Open the LA County explorer or inspect a sample screening report.