Cooling options: Making it last
What to build or change, what keeps it working, the traps to avoid and rough costs.
Protects. Every asset above: who targets it, who opens it on an alert, who pays for upkeep, and who hears complaints.
Key caution. Often the most useful layer, and the easiest to leave unfunded.
Options, and what keeps each working
| Option | What it does | Keeps working with | Avoid | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Link the heat plan to the assets | A ward or settlement plan that says which shelters, water points and cool spaces open at each alert level, and who opens them. | A yearly review with the people who use them. | A plan with no budget or named owners. | About US$5,300–US$26,000 per plan (₹5 lakh–₹25 lakh at Indian prices) |
| An upkeep agreement | A written deal between the council, community groups, schools or vendors on who repaints, waters, prunes, refills and repairs. | Money from the running budget, not only the building budget. | Paying to build without paying to maintain. | About US$2,100–US$11,000 per year, for a cluster of assets (₹2 lakh–₹10 lakh at Indian prices) |
| Map risk with the people exposed | Walk the area with workers, women, older and disabled people, migrants and renters to see who is exposed, why warnings fail, and where assets could go. | Repeating it as people and places change. | Relying on satellite heat maps alone. | About US$5,300–US$21,000 per baseline (₹5 lakh–₹20 lakh at Indian prices) |
| A way to complain and be heard | An accessible route for complaints and feedback, set up before work starts. | Someone who answers within a set time. | Starting work where affected people have no voice or remedy. | About US$1,100–US$5,300 per set-up (₹1 lakh–₹5 lakh at Indian prices) |
| Find the hooks in existing plans | Search city, disaster, water and climate plans and budgets for mandates and money that cooling can use. | Checking what you find with the officials concerned. | Assuming nothing exists because nobody uses the words “nature-based solutions”. | About US$1,100–US$5,300 per review (₹1 lakh–₹5 lakh at Indian prices) |
What the evidence says
- In Melbourne, officials found money for new green infrastructure was usually available, but running budgets were under pressure and rarely increased, even as the area to maintain grew.
- In Santiago, without long-term financing, only better-off municipalities could take part in green-space programmes, because only they could afford the extra upkeep.
- Less than 10% of the climate finance that reaches cities goes to adaptation and resilience.
- The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions makes inclusive governance and equity one of its eight criteria.
How you will know it works. Cooling assets still working after three years, each with a named owner and an upkeep budget
Five traps that waste cooling money: Buying before diagnosing · Built, with no one to keep it · Green without water · Promising degrees you haven’t measured · A list of activities, not a model.
Costs are rough planning ranges for early budgeting, not quotes. They are Indian prices, from a practitioner’s planning workbook, shown in US dollars at about ₹95 to US$1 (mid-2026) with the rupee range alongside. India has some of the lowest building prices in Asia, so expect most Southeast Asian cities to pay more: see the regional prices below. Where a public figure exists, it is linked. Where no range is solid enough to share, the card says so: get local quotes.
Sources
- Hansen et al., chapter 10 in Nature-Based Solutions for Cities, 2023. doi.org/10.4337/9781800376762
- Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, The State of Cities Climate Finance, 2021. climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/the-state-of-cities-climate-finance
- IUCN Global Standard: the eight criteria. inbs.iucn.org/understand/8-criteria
- U.S. dollar–Indian rupee rates, 2026 (Pound Sterling Live). poundsterlinglive.com/history/USD-INR-2026