Planning for Extreme Heat: Lessons and Recommendation for South Asia

Authors: Owen Gow, Bushra Afreen, Lenio Myrivili, Mihir R. Bhatt and Khayal Trivedi

On the 19th formation day of the National Disaster Management Authority in India, HOISA presented its fourth panel discussion on observing heatwaves differently within South Asia. In continuation with previous panels that looked at the challenges concerning adaptation, mitigation and future of heatwaves, this edition focussed on the planning for extreme heats, and what lessons and recommendations can be drawn from regional and international case studies that can be applied widely within the subcontinent. 

The panel noted that as increasing intensity of heat waves combine with other crisis such as food, air pollution, waste management, floods and cyclones, to create a cascading effect on vulnerable populations such as labourers, migrant workers, and women, governments at each administrative level must build policies and action plans that are inclusive of all. This should take into consideration not just the rising temperatures and the deadly combination of heat and humidity, but also the rising underground heat waves, its impact on civic infrastructure, developing early warning systems, cooling zones, and managing brown fields. Two ongoing, distinct, and fine examples of such an effort, in Dhaka North and Athens were discussed at length by the esteemed panel members, that each city can learn from.

Recently, Dhaka North became the first city in Asia to appoint a Chief Heat Officer (CHO) by the Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation. This initiative is a result of  Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center’s (Arsht-Rock) Global Champions for Heat Action platform. Bushra Afreen, the appointed CHO and one of the panel members highlighted that while a lot of conversations happen at international and national level regarding combatting heatwaves, the same is often missing at the city level with no specific position or funding enabled to make cities more resilient against extreme heat. The official appointment of this position therefore enabled advocacy for more investments, resources and attention for resilience work in the city. 

But while such a position paves way for a lot of work that needs to be done, it is important to highlight how distributed, isolated and challenging this sector is. As several organisations and entities work in silos, it becomes imperative to build strategic partnerships and collaborations to enable inclusive campaigns and projects. Working with communities and especially those that are marginalised and/or ghettoised becomes in particularly difficult, as each community or area have different specific needs and context, that has to be taken into account. It is often seen that several of the previously carried out projects did not reach the vulnerable, poor and marginalised communities, almost as if they are invisible. Chief heat officer’s position particularly focusses on this gap and aims to create intervention that are inclusive. 

Bushra points out how nature based solutions are key to fighting heat and air pollution. This includes sponsors led afforestation projects, that are empowered by the local communities, building of cooling zones, creating more green covers etc. However to implement any project, one needs empirical and scientific data that provides necessary knowledge to set priorities. Bushra has been working with the city to facilitate installation of air quality sensors, heat sensors, humidity sensors in each of the zones. Up until August 2023, this data was simply not available to work with. This has been extremely helpful in their afforestation programme, as now they can identify the biggest polluting areas, and overlay it with canopy covers assessment to identify vulnerable areas. And unsurprisingly, a lot of these areas are contained in informal sectors and open landfills which are massive source of polluted air and heat. In the coming months they will plant 5-6K trees which will be maintained in the coming years through the programme. 

In near future, Dhaka is also planning to create cooling hubs that are contextual and work for the local communities which will also ensure free clean drinking water which is a commodity today. Their city wide application - Shobar Dhaka will integrate these cooling hubs in the city map, along with guidelines for heatwave periods, warning systems, and mechanism to report or flag a problem. Since the application will be geotagged, the municipality can respond to the citizen’s needs in matter of few days.  Dhaka is also set to see its first urban forest, for which the allocated area’s soil will be treated to plant diverse local species. All of these projects are aimed at being sustainable and shall create a circular economy that provides employment to youth. 

Athens: 

One of the biggest municipalities in Greece, Athens is one of the hottest capitals in Europe that is affected by increasing intensity and frequency of heatwaves, fires, floods and droughts. With a significantly older population (more than 19% of people are older than 60 years), the city has considerable amount of vulnerable population that is directly impacted by extreme weather. Further, more than 80% of the city is covered with hard surface (concrete, asphalts, bricks) and the green cover is unevenly distributed in the city, making some areas hotter than the rest. Quite evidently, the less green areas are those that are resided by poor and vulnerable socio economic groups as opposed to the richer and greener neighbourhoods. As the days of extreme heat rise, Athens is expected to witness a higher mortality rate particular in the vulnerable areas, causing higher stress on health, economy and other ecosystems. 

Lenio Myrvili, Global Chief Heat Officer to UN Habitat and former Deputy Mayor for Urban Nature and Climate Resilience in Athens shared with the panel that one of the first attempts to tackle this crisis was to create a heat map of the city by using land surface temperatures in each block and area. They collected average temperature of previous 5 summers to identify the hotter and more vulnerable areas that required immediate attention. Their research proved that land surface temperatures are directly linked to mortality. Higher the temperatures, more impact there is on older and vulnerable populations. It is therefore critical to identify and map areas at risk which is often difficult to accomplish with limited access to data. 

The city adopted a 3 step strategy to combat heat: Awareness raising, preparedness and redesign. The awareness raising initiatives dealt with creating campaigns, convincing policy and decision makers understand the gravity of the situation, and communicating about the invisible nature and impact of heatwaves on economy, health and access. One of the game changing projects was to categorise heatwaves by linking meteorological data (heat) with its impact on health. They created an algorithm by studying the different types of heatwaves in the past 2-3 decades and the rate of mortality. This algorithm is unique to Athens as it incorporates its context, history and past records. Similar algorithms are also being generated for other cities, to then deduce three categories of heatwaves - low, medium and high impact. 

Based on the categorisation of heatwaves, appropriate action and short term measures are opted for, which forms part of the Preparedness phase. These actions include early warning systems, mass messaging on phones, websites, hotlines, cooling stations, and partnership with other agencies such as Red cross to build measures related to ambulances that serve specific high impact neighbourhoods, etc. 

And lastly, under the Redesigning phase, the city is studied with the intention of adapting it to face extreme weathers. Lenio points out that today’s cities are badly designed for climate change as they trap the heat and humidity within the city. “We must think of designing new parts of the city and adapting existing ones to facilitate cooler and greener environments”. Data shows that at least 30% of canopy cover is required in any neighbourhood to drop the temperatures. Presence of water bodies, any kinds of shades, use of different materials that are sustainable along with new technologies can make our cities, better, livable and cooler. This is an ongoing process that Athens is undertaking to combat heat. 

But as we present case studies and solutions that some cities are opting for, how must other cities, stakeholders and even individuals must act and begin implementing some of these ideas in their local contexts? 

Owen Gow, associate director at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock) and the third panelist presented the Heat Action Platform that has been developed with joint effort from several partners and organisations. Currently also available in Hindi, Tamil and English, the platform is a repository of various articles, reports, strategies, case studies and resources on how learnings from different cities and regions of the world can be effectively communicated to inspire action for more resilient cities. The comprehensive heat planning framework that the platform introduces also carries a three-step process of Assessing, Planning and Implementing with Evaluation. With this platform, any individual, practitioner, or government authority can feed their research and practice with the vast amount of resources available. 

HOISA therefore urges its readers and network to explore this platform to make this effort into a movement led by each individual in combatting extreme heat and weather. 

As the panel came to its conclusion, it was noted that more work is needed in the following areas:

• Developing efficient early warning systems that reduce the gap between the warning and the actual risk. 

• Gaining access to more data on regional differences and impact of heatwaves.

• Studying the cascading nature of heatwaves with other natural disasters and preparing for the same. 

• And including vulnerable populations in the adaptation phase, to create ownership of the initiatives.