Open Data Knowledge Base

Built Environment & Climate Research

Curated by Bilge Kobas
Chair of Building Technology and Climate-Responsive Design
Technical University of Munich

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A searchable, filterable catalogue of 70+ open data sources for built environment and climate research. Designed for students and researchers at all levels — from complete beginners to experienced coders. Includes beginner-friendliness ratings, plain-language glossary tooltips, example research questions for each dataset, and a guided "Start Here" wizard.

Live site: https://bilgekobas.github.io/sourcebook/

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Contents

• Getting Started (2-minute setup)
• Local Development
• Adding New Entries
• For Students — Contributing a Dataset
• Features
• How to Cite
• Licence

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Getting Started

Step 1 — Fork and clone

Click Fork at the top right of this page, then clone your fork:

git clone https://github.com/bilgekobas/sourcebook.git
cd sourcebook

Step 2 — Update the two config values

vite.config.js — change base to match your repository name:

base: '/sourcebook/',   // already correct
// or
base: '/',                // if this is your user site (username.github.io)

src/App.jsx — REPO_URL is already set correctly:

const REPO_URL = "https://github.com/bilgekobas/sourcebook";

Step 3 — Enable GitHub Pages

1. Push your changes: git add . && git commit -m "configure" && git push
2. In your repo on GitHub: Settings → Pages → Source → GitHub Actions
3. The site deploys automatically on every push to main
4. Find your live URL under Settings → Pages after the first deploy (~2 minutes)

Step 4 — Share with students

Send students the live URL. No account or installation needed to use the site.

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Local Development

npm install
npm run dev

Opens at http://localhost:5173. Changes to any file reload instantly.

To build for production:

npm run build
npm run preview   # preview the built site locally

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Adding New Entries

All dataset entries live in src/data/entries.js. This is the only file you need to edit when adding or updating entries — no UI code to touch.

Entry template

Copy this template, fill in all fields, and append it to the SEED_ENTRIES array:

{
  id: "seed-71",                        // increment from the last entry
  name: "Dataset Name",
  description: "Plain-language description. What is it? Why is it useful?",
  url: "https://...",
  category: "Climate & Atmosphere",     // must match one of the CATEGORIES list
  topics: ["Topic 1", "Topic 2"],
  costModel: "free",                    // "free" | "freemium" | "paid"
  codingRequired: "optional",           // "none" | "optional" | "required"
  scale: ["Global"],                    // any of: Global, Continental, National, Regional, Local
  regions: ["Global"],
  temporalCoverage: "1940–present",
  temporalResolution: "Hourly",
  spatialResolution: "~31 km grid cells",
  formats: ["NetCDF", "CSV"],
  beginnerRating: 3,                    // 1 (expert only) → 5 (very easy)
  researchQuestions: [
    "Plain-language research question 1?",
    "Plain-language research question 2?",
  ],
  dateAdded: "2026-06-01",             // YYYY-MM-DD — entries within 60 days show a "New" badge
},

After editing, commit and push — the site redeploys automatically via GitHub Actions.

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For Students — Contributing a Dataset

You can suggest new entries directly from the live site:

1. Click + Contribute a Dataset
2. Fill in the form
3. Click ↗ Submit to Official Catalogue

This opens a pre-filled GitHub Issue. Your submission will be reviewed and — if it meets the quality bar — added to the main catalogue by the curator.

Quality bar for submissions

• The dataset should be freely accessible (free or free-with-registration)
• It should be relevant to built environment or climate research
• It should not already be in the catalogue (check the search first)
• Description should be in plain language — imagine explaining it to a first-year student
• Include at least 2 example research questions
• Beginner rating should be honest

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Features

Feature	Description
70+ curated entries	Covers climate, urban morphology, building energy, land cover, air quality, hazards, soil, emissions, mobility, social vulnerability, and more
Beginner ratings	1–5 bar showing how accessible each dataset is without prior experience
Jargon tooltips	Hover over any red-underlined term (NetCDF, Reanalysis, STAC API…) for a plain-English definition
Research questions	2–3 example questions per entry to help students map their problem to a dataset
Start Here wizard	3-step filter to match students with appropriate starting datasets
Filter & sort	Filter by category, cost, coding level, and scale; sort A–Z, by beginner rating, or by date
Export CSV	Download the full catalogue as a spreadsheet
Citation helper	One-click citation copy per entry
New badge	Entries added within the last 60 days are marked "New"
Contribute guide	Collapsible in-page guide explaining the contribution process
GitHub Issues submission	Student contributions open a pre-filled Issue for curator review

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How to Cite

Citing the knowledge base itself:

Kobas, B. (2026). Sourcebook — Open Data for Built Environment & Climate Research. Chair of Building Technology and Climate-Responsive Design, Technical University of Munich. Available at: https://bilgekobas.github.io/sourcebook/

Citing an individual entry:

Use the Cite button on any expanded entry — it copies a ready-to-paste citation to your clipboard.

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Project Structure

sourcebook/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── deploy.yml          GitHub Actions auto-deploy
├── src/
│   ├── data/
│   │   └── entries.js          ← all dataset entries live here
│   ├── App.jsx                 UI components and application logic
│   └── main.jsx                React entry point
├── index.html                  HTML shell with font imports
├── package.json
├── vite.config.js              ← set base to your repo name
└── README.md

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Licence

Dataset descriptions are original prose written for this resource and are shared under CC BY 4.0. The underlying datasets are subject to their own licences — check each source before use in publications.

Application source code is MIT licensed.