India Is Using AI and Satellites to Map Urban Heat Vulnerability Down to the Building Level

“The more your data is granular, the more your response can be targeted,” adds Krishna. Instead of generic advice such as “drinking more water”, localized data could carry out specific actions: change the market or factory hours, deploy profitable heat shelters or set up oral rehydration solution in high fall areas. “If you know who is the most vulnerable, you can act faster,” she adds.

But as Delhi goes through another burning summer, on a climb context Heat -related death and the increase in climate stress, many rescue measures already promised by the government, such as placing 3,000 water coolers In public places, modify construction work schedules and build diurnal shelters for outdoor workers and homelessness –are not yet carried out.

This year, the heat seems even more unbearable for Zubaaida. “My blood pressure drops, I receive headaches,” she says. Frequent and prolonged power cuts in its neighborhood also mean that there is little respite at home. “We need an appropriate shelter and the shadow to work.”

Part of the problem is that heat action plans are not legally binding, explains Tamanna Dalal, the main research partner at New Delhi Sustainable Futures Collaborative, an environmental research organization. “Heat waves are not recognized as specific disasters in the state in most regions of India,” she explains. “Currently, only eight states have officially declared heat waves like disasters.

The national government too does not recognize Wave heat like “notified” disasters, which means that they cannot trigger financial aid under the legislation on the management of catastrophes in the country.

As a result, all measures taken tend to be in the short term and reactive. Temporary measures such as school closures ordered by the Department of Education or the oral rehydration solution Storage control of health services are repeated each year. But these measures do nothing to build structural resilience so that cities adapt to the worsening of thermal conditions.

It is ultimately a question of building more resilient heat cities that can adapt and mitigate simultaneously, while integrating heat with other political objectives such as. Like energy, water, job creation and air quality, Khosla explains.

Some financing routes already exist. “We have found that 18 diagrams sponsored by the Center have direct links with long -term solutions listed in HAP, such as water supply, solar on the roof, and Cetera,” explains Dalal. But many local officials do not know that these resources are available. A recent amendment The national disasters in India attenuation fund now helps states to finance heat -related actions, but awareness is very low. India is still in the early stages of heat planning in the country, and large -scale capacity building is urgent to help directors see heat as a chronic threat in a warming world.

“We soon reach the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, which will be irreversible,” explains Dalal, referring to the targeted limit for global warming Place in the Paris Agreementthat the world is almost sure to break. “It will have an impact on all aspects of our daily life. The next few years are essential in the implementation of some of the long -term solutions, because they take years to implement and even more to have an impact. ”