Heat Shield: City Experiences and Strategies for Tackling Heat

Cities are planning measures to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of urban heat. To support these efforts, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), under AMRUT 2.0, has launched the ‘Building Heat Resilient Cities: A Strategic Pilot for Urban India’. The programme aims to help cities identify and address urban heat risks, with particular attention to areas and communities most vulnerable to heat. Under the programme, 12 cities are receiving funding to implement pilot projects, for which they are exploring innovative solutions. 

These efforts offer valuable opportunities for learning. Some cities have made note-worthy progress, with measures ranging from city-level interventions such as expanding blue-green infrastructure and providing shade, to building-level solutions including cool roofs, appropriate building materials and heat-resilient improvements in informal housing. 

However, the experience of planning and implementing these interventions has brought to light gaps in ULBs’ capacity to develop baselines, assess heat risks, identify priority interventions and mobilise funding for implementation. 

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has announced a training programme which aims to facilitate cross-learning from cities’ experiences while strengthening the capacity of city officials in heat-risk assessment, baseline development, identification of priority actions, understanding fiscal instruments, and monitoring and evaluation. It will also facilitate the co-development of a heat action roadmap, drawing on city experiences, expert insights and the perspectives of vulnerable communities to help cities become more heat-resilient. 

Salient features

• Understanding climate change, thermal discomfort and its implications for cities.
• Understanding the heat-related challenges faced by vulnerable groups through their lived experiences.
• Mapping heat-stressed areas and heat sinks using remote sensing and GIS.
• Hands-on sessions on microclimate simulation and interventions to improve urban thermal comfort.
• Learning from cities’ experiences and on ground interventions to tackle heat
• Developing heat management plans derived from experiences of vulnerable groups and insights from experts.
• Understanding climate financing and fiscal instruments
• Developing an urban cooling framework for heat resilience and decarbonisation.
• Exploring low-carbon cooling solutions, cool roofs, material and energy-efficiency building codes.

Course Coordinator:

Nida Maryam
 Sustainable Habitat Programme, CSE
9360316439, nida.maryam@cseindia.org 

Course Director:

Rajneesh Sareen
Programme Director,
Sustainable Habitat Programme, CSE,
rajneesh.sareen@cseindia.org