Issue areas & domains

Overview

Atlas organizes civic work into a two-level taxonomy: domains (broad categories) and issue areas (specific topics). Every entry in the directory is tagged with one or more issue areas. The autodiscovery pipeline uses these to classify what it finds, and the search interface uses them for filtering.

How it works

Entries are tagged at the issue area level, not the domain level
An entry can be tagged with multiple issue areas across multiple domains — cross-cutting work is the norm
Domains exist for grouping and navigation only
The taxonomy evolves as Atlas covers more cities and issues emerge

You can retrieve the full taxonomy programmatically via GET /api/issue-areas and GET /api/domains. See the taxonomy API guide for request patterns.

The taxonomy

Economic Security

Issues around financial stability, employment, and economic opportunity.

Issue area	Slug
Automation and AI displacement	`automation_and_ai_displacement`
Gig economy and precarious work	`gig_economy_and_precarious_work`
Income inequality and wealth concentration	`income_inequality_and_wealth_concentration`
Healthcare economics and medical debt	`healthcare_economics_and_medical_debt`
Student debt and college affordability	`student_debt_and_college_affordability`

Housing and the Built Environment

Issues around where and how people live.

Issue area	Slug
Housing affordability	`housing_affordability`
Suburban sprawl and car dependency	`suburban_sprawl_and_car_dependency`
Homelessness and housing insecurity	`homelessness_and_housing_insecurity`
Zoning and land use	`zoning_and_land_use`

Climate and Environment

Issues around environmental health, climate change, and sustainability.

Issue area	Slug
Climate adaptation and resilience	`climate_adaptation_and_resilience`
Environmental justice and pollution	`environmental_justice_and_pollution`
Sustainable agriculture and food systems	`sustainable_agriculture_and_food_systems`
Water access and infrastructure	`water_access_and_infrastructure`
Energy transition	`energy_transition`

Democracy and Governance

Issues around civic participation, electoral systems, and democratic institutions.

Issue area	Slug
Voter suppression and electoral access	`voter_suppression_and_electoral_access`
Local government and civic engagement	`local_government_and_civic_engagement`
Political polarization and democratic norms	`political_polarization_and_democratic_norms`
Money in politics	`money_in_politics`
Electoral reform	`electoral_reform`

Technology and Information

Issues around digital life, information systems, and tech accountability.

Issue area	Slug
Social media and mental health	`social_media_and_mental_health`
Misinformation and epistemic crisis	`misinformation_and_epistemic_crisis`
Digital privacy and surveillance	`digital_privacy_and_surveillance`
Broadband access and digital divide	`broadband_access_and_digital_divide`
Platform monopolies and tech accountability	`platform_monopolies_and_tech_accountability`

Education

Issues around learning, access to education, and educational institutions.

Issue area	Slug
K-12 education inequality	`k12_education_inequality`
Higher education affordability	`higher_education_affordability`
Vocational and alternative pathways	`vocational_and_alternative_pathways`
Education funding and policy	`education_funding_and_policy`

Issues around physical and mental health, community bonds, and care systems.

Issue area	Slug
Mental health crisis and access	`mental_health_crisis_and_access`
Loneliness and social isolation	`loneliness_and_social_isolation`
Addiction and harm reduction	`addiction_and_harm_reduction`
Healthcare access and coverage	`healthcare_access_and_coverage`
Community health infrastructure	`community_health_infrastructure`

Infrastructure and Public Goods

Issues around the physical systems that communities depend on.

Issue area	Slug
Transportation and mobility	`transportation_and_mobility`
Public transit	`public_transit`
Broadband and digital access	`broadband_and_digital_access`
Water infrastructure	`water_infrastructure`
Physical infrastructure decay	`physical_infrastructure_decay`

Justice and Public Safety

Issues around criminal justice, policing, and community safety.

Issue area	Slug
Criminal justice reform and mass incarceration	`criminal_justice_reform_and_mass_incarceration`
Policing and community safety	`policing_and_community_safety`
Immigration and belonging	`immigration_and_belonging`
Restorative justice	`restorative_justice`

Rural-Urban Divide

Issues around the diverging realities of rural and urban communities.

Issue area	Slug
Rural economic decline and brain drain	`rural_economic_decline_and_brain_drain`
Cultural resentment and political division	`cultural_resentment_and_political_division`
Rural healthcare and services	`rural_healthcare_and_services`
Urban-rural coalition building	`urban_rural_coalition_building`

Labor and Worker Power

Issues around workers’ rights, organizing, and economic democracy.

Issue area	Slug
Union organizing	`union_organizing`
Worker cooperatives	`worker_cooperatives`
Workplace safety and conditions	`workplace_safety_and_conditions`
Wage theft and labor rights	`wage_theft_and_labor_rights`
Just transition	`just_transition`

Design principles

Multi-tagging is expected. A community land trust fighting displacement in a flood-prone neighborhood might be tagged housing_affordability + climate_adaptation_and_resilience + environmental_justice_and_pollution. That’s not over-tagging — it’s how Atlas surfaces the connections between issues. Granularity is at the “conversation” level. Each issue area is specific enough that two entries tagged the same way are recognizably working on related things, but broad enough that the taxonomy doesn’t balloon. The taxonomy evolves. As Atlas covers more cities, new issues and framings will emerge. New issue areas get added when existing ones can’t describe a meaningful cluster of entries.

Using the taxonomy in the API

Filter entities by issue area:

curl "https://atlas.rebuildingus.org/api/places/kansas-city,missouri/entities?issue_area=housing_affordability"

Retrieve all issue areas:

curl https://atlas.rebuildingus.org/api/issue-areas

Get details for a specific issue area:

curl https://atlas.rebuildingus.org/api/issue-areas/housing_affordability

Use the MCP tool resolve_issue_areas to map natural language to Atlas issue area slugs:

“What Atlas issue areas relate to affordable childcare?”

Taxonomy API guide

Retrieve domains and issue areas from integrations.

Research a place

Use issue area slugs in place-first searches.

Data model

See how domains, issue areas, entities, and sources fit together.

Trust and provenance

Understand how issue tags should be interpreted with sources.

Introduction

Public discovery

Use cases

Issue areas & domains

Overview

How it works

The taxonomy

Economic Security

Housing and the Built Environment

Climate and Environment

Democracy and Governance

Technology and Information

Education

Infrastructure and Public Goods

Justice and Public Safety

Rural-Urban Divide

Labor and Worker Power

Design principles

Using the taxonomy in the API

Taxonomy API guide

Research a place

Data model

Trust and provenance

​Overview

​How it works

​The taxonomy

​Economic Security

​Housing and the Built Environment

​Climate and Environment

​Democracy and Governance

​Technology and Information

​Education

​Health and Social Connection

​Infrastructure and Public Goods

​Justice and Public Safety

​Rural-Urban Divide

​Labor and Worker Power

​Design principles

​Using the taxonomy in the API

​Related guides

Taxonomy API guide

Research a place

Data model

Trust and provenance

Overview

How it works

The taxonomy

Economic Security

Housing and the Built Environment

Climate and Environment

Democracy and Governance

Technology and Information

Education

Health and Social Connection

Infrastructure and Public Goods

Justice and Public Safety

Rural-Urban Divide

Labor and Worker Power

Design principles

Using the taxonomy in the API

Related guides