A short answer to a single question, computed from the documented record rather than argued: the answer, a few figures, a table, the method, what it cannot tell you — and the data slice it counted.
🤖 This definition was generated with AI from the sources linked throughout. It has not had a complete human review — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources. How this works.
An evidence brief answers exactly one question from the atlas's own record — shorter than an essay and stricter than one. Each states its answer up front, then the figures behind it, the method, and a plain statement of what the question cannot settle. Each also ships the slice of data it counted, so the answer can be checked instead of believed.
The rule that makes the format possible is that no figure in a brief is typed by hand. Every number is a placeholder resolved from the live corpus when the site is built, from the same computation the rest of the atlas uses — an unknown placeholder stops the build outright. A brief written any other way would go stale the week after publication, which for a document meant to be quoted is the most expensive kind of error there is.
What comes out is often not what the sector says about itself. The briefs so far ask who actually evaluates these projects, how long one runs before it stops — the ones recorded as failures run longer than the ones recorded as successes — and which projects disclose a price at all. All briefs are open.
Added 2026-08-25 · Part of the growing Smart City Glossary