# Civilization Quest: research brief

Self-guided template, first edition, October 5, 2026.
This file stays with you. There is no submission or review service in this edition.

## Question and scope
What specific question are you investigating? Name the place, period and population.

## Owner and deliverable
Researcher: [your name or a pseudonym, keep private if appropriate]
Deliverable: one page of evidence, primary-source links and unresolved questions.
Completion check: every factual claim has a source; someone else can trace the steps.

## Evidence table
| Claim | Evidence type | Primary source URL | Release/version | Observation year | Unit/denominator | Limitations |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [claim] | [observed fact / actor claim / interpretation / forecast / proposal] | [URL] | [release] | [year] | [unit] | [limits] |

## Interpretation
What does the evidence support? What are plausible alternative explanations?
What is missing? Missing observations are not zero. Correlation does not establish causation.

## People, rights and tradeoffs
Who benefits? Who bears costs? Whose perspective is missing?
What rights, values, local conditions and distributional effects matter?

## Risks and safeguards
Use public, aggregate evidence. Do not include vulnerable identities, tactical positions,
aid-worker locations or other targeting-useful information. Respect consent and source licenses.
List potential harms and ways the interpretation might be wrong.
Research does not authorize outreach or intervention.

## Outcome check
What did the work clarify? What remains uncertain?
If proposing an intervention, define the outcome, harms, comparison and review needed before action.
A historical counterfactual cannot prove a war would have been prevented.
Forecast accuracy is different from causal intervention effectiveness.

## Starting sources
- Cities: https://unhabitat.org/world-cities-report-2024-cities-and-climate-action
- Institutions: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/worldwide-governance-indicators
- Water: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.H2O.SMDW.ZS
- Health: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN
- Electricity: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS
- Conflict definitions: https://ucdp.uu.se/apidocs/index.html