Data specification
Documents
The database contains plans and related documents on climate action, transport and air quality. The 705 city records link to 668 distinct PDFs in 34 languages.
| Plan type | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Climate action | Goals and actions to reduce emissions or adapt to climate change. |
| Transport | Transport planning, including public transport, roads, walking, cycling and traffic management. |
| Air quality | Plans to prevent or reduce air pollution. |
Selection
City coverage. The database includes cities with readable files covering all three topics. Country totals reflect the cities in the database.
Preferred document. The first choice is a complete, adopted plan or strategy devoted to the topic. The latest suitable edition takes priority. Translations, summaries and chapters of the same plan count as versions or parts of that plan.
Selected planning reports. The study also retains explicitly reviewed planning reports or consultation editions where selected for their city and topic coverage. File notes identify these versions and whether government adoption has been verified. A publication year does not establish approval.
Official sources. Priority goes to publications from city and regional governments, transport authorities and other public agencies. For copies on other websites, we check the issuing body, title, date and area covered.
Year. The record uses the approval year where available, otherwise the publication year. Notes identify later reprints and updates. Searches start with climate and transport documents from 2020 and air-quality documents from 2018. Older adopted editions remain where they still apply and we could not find a later complete edition.
Sections in larger documents. Some cities put transport or air-quality actions in an environmental or development plan. The record names the relevant sections and PDF pages. A separately supplied chapter also belongs to its parent document.
Analysis text. Sentence analysis uses the selected topic or city pages, with complete dedicated documents in scope. Shared source text is counted once in corpus totals and remains mapped to every applicable city for city comparisons. Tables and fragments that do not pass the existing sentence rules do not become sentence observations.
Regional plans. A regional plan can cover several cities. Its stated area includes the city; the issuing authority's name alone is insufficient. Cities that share a plan link to the same PDF. Collections of city reports identify the pages for each city.
Filters
| Filter | Meaning and use |
|---|---|
| Search | Search keywords in city names, countries, topics and original or English titles. Accents are optional. |
| Plan type | Climate action, transport or air quality. |
| Policy document | Standalone document: a publication devoted to the topic. Part of a larger document: a section in a broader plan or collection. Page references appear beside the download. |
| Area covered | City: the document covers one city. Metropolitan or regional: it covers a wider area that includes the city. A regional authority may also publish a plan for just one city. |
| Document form | Plan or strategy: the plan itself, including plans for cycling, parking or public transport. Other plan-related document: a summary, report, supporting annex, decision or agreement that sets out relevant actions. Titles and notes identify the specific form. |
| Source website | Government or public agency: an official government or agency site. City network or programme: C40, ICLEI, the Covenant of Mayors or a similar programme. Other website: another organisation or a service that hosts documents. This filter shows where the copy comes from. The title and notes identify the issuing body and any adoption decision. For archived copies, the filter uses the original website's category and the link reads Archived source. |
| Country / region | Limit the cities to a geographic area. |
| City group | Select all cities or those on the C40 roster checked on 2026-08-13. |
| Language | The language of the saved file. A file with several languages can appear under each. |
| Year | From and To include both years. Undated records appear when no year range is set. |
A regional air-quality plan can be both Standalone document and Metropolitan or regional. An air-quality section in a city environmental plan can be both Part of a larger document and City.
Selecting two checkboxes in one group includes either choice. Adding a different filter narrows the results. Menus show the available choices and their counts; a selected choice stays visible at zero. Document and language counts refer to distinct PDFs. Country and region counts refer to cities. Reset all clears every selection.
Known city mismatches carry a note by the download. They appear under All, outside the two Area covered choices, until corrected.
Downloads
Download PDF downloads the saved file. Source opens the website it came from. Some records also offer a city-section download. Page numbers refer to the full PDF, with its cover counted as page 1.
Each PDF counts once, including files shared by several cities. The table and CSV have one row per city and topic, so they may contain more rows than files. Shared rows use the same file ID and download link. The note by the download lists the other cities and any separate chapter pages.
Language and titles
All downloads are PDFs. Titles appear in the original language, with an English title or translation where needed. The files keep their original text and layout.