Heat Action Plan - Question of Cities

‘Vulnerability mapping directly improves lives of those most affected by climate risks’

The devastation from floods, droughts and heat across India every year has heightened the need for effective strategies and adaptive measures. The report, Mapping India’s Climate Vulnerability: A District Level Assessment, by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, analyses…

The spectacular failure of planning cities, as we know it. What next?

The widely-prevalent conventional urban planning framework in India, focused on land use, zoning and building regulations, is out of step with the demands of the time we live in, especially climate change events. Development Plans or Master Plans approach natural…

India’s changing monsoon patterns demand shifting gears in preparedness

There is empirical evidence to show that changes in the monsoon or heavier rainfall is not merely our imagination. The tehsil-level study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water maps, like never before, the many changes across India. As…

Why India’s cities are not prepared for extreme heat and high rainfall

Searing heat scorched northern India, including Delhi, before rains hit hard. Flooding threw life out of gear in Pune, Bengaluru, Itanagar among other cities through June. Hundreds lost their lives. Cities were ill-equipped to address these extreme weather events whose…

Urgent heat conversations and actions we need in India to cool down cities

As millions of Indians struggle through an relentlessly scorching summer with never-before high temperatures, Heat Action Plans have become critical to people’s lives and livelihoods. Although states and cities have prepared plans – and some have fitfully implemented them –…

Delhi’s double whammy of heat and polluted air demands review of Heat Action Plan

If air pollution is hazardous and deadly for people, then poor quality air combined with high temperatures is worse, as seen in this ethnographic-like study of Delhi’s Sanjay Colony. However, the city’s Heat Action Plan (HAP) does not recognise, let…

How the lack of rights worsens climate events for Delhi’s informal workers

As climate-related weather events scorch, flood and chill New Delhi, its informal workers, an estimated 80 percent of its workforce, are left grappling with myriad challenges of living in a city that would not function if not for their labour.…

Heat index, or the temperature it feels like, will change the way India measures heat

Mere air temperature or land surface temperature, conveyed as minimum and maximum temperature twice a day, is no longer enough to combat heat during the harsh summer. The heat index, which layers temperature with other factors such as relative humidity,…

‘This summer heat is cooking our bodies alive, sweat runs off our feet’

The unbearable heat across cities this summer has been the harshest for outdoor workers who have no option but to toil through the high temperatures, without mitigating measures such as cool shelters and drinking water booths which should be provided…

Looking beyond heat action plans to blunt the impact of urban heat

As cities are being designed and redesigned, governments must look beyond heat measurements and Heat Action Plans to tackle the impact of rising temperatures. The dense urban sprawl, and loss of trees have exacerbated the effects of Climate Change. How…