Worked heat action plans from Asia
How places in Asia have turned heat risk into a plan: what happened, what they decided, what changed, and who leads each action.
Looking for the documents themselves? The India heat action plan archive lists 146 verified plans and guidance documents from across India, with a link to each PDF.
Ahmedabad’s heat action plan
What happened: In May 2010 a heatwave peaking at 46.8 °C caused an estimated 1,344 excess deaths in the city, 43% more than in the same weeks of 2009 and 2011.
What they decided: In 2013 the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, with the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar and NRDC, launched South Asia’s first heat action plan: forecasts from the India Meteorological Department feed colour-coded alerts, departments act together, the public is warned, and health staff are trained. From 2017 the plan added cool roofs.
What changed: An evaluation estimated about 1,190 deaths a year were avoided after the plan began, compared with before it. The model has since spread to many other Indian cities and states.
- Heat action plans: led by City and local governments; paid by Not documented; Colour-coded alerts issued from IMD forecasts, with inter-agency response
- Heat-ready health services: led by Health authorities; paid by Not documented; Health staff trained to recognise and treat heat illness
- Cool, affordable housing: led by City and local governments; paid by Not documented; Cool roofs on homes in informal settlements and on public buildings
Sources: Azhar et al., PLoS ONE, 2014: the 2010 heatwave · NRDC: the plan’s components and cool roofs · Hess et al., 2018: deaths avoided
Thane’s ward-by-ward heat action plan
What happened: In Thane, a fast-growing coastal city next to Mumbai, humidity and warm nights make heat more dangerous than the thermometer suggests, and the risk differs sharply from one ward to the next.
What they decided: In March 2024 the Thane Municipal Corporation and CEEW published a heat action plan built on a ward-level risk index of felt heat, warm nights and social vulnerability. A Heatwave Task Force across departments, chaired by an Additional Municipal Commissioner, runs it with emergency procedures. Measures include early warnings, cool roofs and pavements, water stations, shade, and heat preparedness in schools and hospitals.
What changed: Its effect on illness and deaths has not yet been publicly evaluated. What it shows is a plan that names who acts and where the risk is highest, before the season starts.
- Heat action plans: led by City and local governments; paid by Not documented; Ward-level risk index updated each season, with task-force actions logged against it
- Cooling centres and check-ins: led by City and local governments; paid by Not documented; Water stations and shaded areas in the highest-risk wards
- Cool, affordable housing: led by City and local governments; paid by Not documented; Cool roofs and cool pavements installed in high-risk wards
- Heat-ready health services: led by Health authorities; paid by Not documented; Hospitals and schools with heat preparedness procedures
Sources: CEEW: How can Thane city tackle heatwave risks with a heat action plan · Global Heat Health Information Network: Heat Action Plan for Thane City 2024
Tamil Nadu’s state-wide heat network
What happened: About 68% of Tamil Nadu’s people face 8–9 hours a day of strong heat stress from March to June, and 56% live where summer nights are warmer than the 1981–2011 average. The state’s 2019 heatwave action plan dealt mainly with short-term emergency response.
What they decided: In 2024 the State Planning Commission, with WRI India as knowledge partner and support from the British High Commission, convened a Heat Action Network of line departments, including disaster management, health, education, agriculture, environment and forests, and water. Together they wrote India’s first state-wide heat strategy, covering people, animals and ecosystems along three pathways: health and well-being, sustained resources and productivity, and cooling. It builds heat into schemes that already exist rather than starting new ones.
What changed: It is a strategy, not yet an evaluated programme. Departments are to take its recommendations to detailed project reports, with progress reviewed every 6–8 months. What it shows is a whole state, not one city, giving heat an owner across departments.
- Heat action plans: led by National governments; paid by Not documented; Departments in the Heat Action Network reporting progress every 6–8 months
- Heat-ready health services: led by Health authorities; paid by Not documented; Pregnancy-scheme check-ups that screen for heat risk (proposed)
- Cool, affordable housing: led by City and local governments; paid by Not documented; Redevelopment tenders for informal settlements that set a limit on heat gain through walls and roofs (proposed)
- Green, cool cities: led by National governments; paid by Public budget; Forest and tree cover rising from 23.8% towards 33% by 2030–31
Sources: Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, 2024: Beating the Heat · WRI India: mapping the path to heat resilience in Tamil Nadu · Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, G.O. 215, 2023: the tree cover target
Singapore’s heat rules for outdoor work
What happened: In one of the world’s densest, most humid cities, the commercial centre has measured up to about 7 °C warmer than the outskirts, and builders, shipyard and landscape workers labour outdoors through it. A study of 355 workers found each hot day cost a median S$21 in lost income.
What they decided: In 2023 the National Environment Agency launched a national heat stress advisory based on wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT), which counts humidity, sun and wind, with low, moderate and high levels. The Ministry of Manpower made employers check WBGT hourly at outdoor work, give at least 10 minutes’ shaded rest each hour for heavy work at 32 °C or above, help new workers acclimatise, and enforced it.
What changed: In March and June 2024 the ministry inspected 250 workplaces and acted against 78, mainly for missing shaded rest breaks and acclimatisation. The rules have since been revised and strengthened. Their effect on heat illness has not yet been publicly evaluated.
- Heat-safe work: led by National governments; paid by Employers; Outdoor worksites checking WBGT hourly and giving shaded rest breaks; workplaces inspected
- Heat action plans: led by Weather and climate services; paid by Not documented; Heat stress advisory with three WBGT risk levels, shown by location
- Green, cool cities: led by City and local governments; paid by Not documented; Districts modelled for cooling through Cooling Singapore
Sources: Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment: Heat Stress Advisory, 2023 · Ministry of Manpower: enhanced heat stress measures, 2023 · HRD Asia: 78 of 250 worksites non-compliant, 2024 · NUS Project HeatSafe, 2024 · Cooling Singapore
Dhaka acts before the heat peaks
What happened: Bangladesh’s ‘feels-like’ temperature has risen by about 4.5 °C since 1980, and parts of Dhaka run more than 10 °C hotter than the countryside. In April 2024 a long heatwave closed schools for about 33 million children.
What they decided: In 2023 Dhaka North City Corporation appointed Asia’s first Chief Heat Officer, a post paid for by the Arsht-Rock foundation rather than the city, to bring heat planning together. The same year the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society’s heatwave early action protocol was approved: when forecasts pass 38 °C, warnings, drinking water, cooling stations and cash grants go out before the peak.
What changed: On 21 April 2024 the protocol was activated for Dhaka, with about CHF 500,000 from the IFRC’s emergency fund to reach some 124,000 people. Its effect on illness and deaths has not been publicly evaluated. What it shows is money and a plan agreed before the heat, released by a forecast.
- Anticipatory action: led by Community and civil society groups; paid by Not documented; Days from a 38 °C forecast to cash, water and warnings reaching people
- Cooling centres and check-ins: led by Community and civil society groups; paid by Not documented; Cooling stations open at three locations during the heatwave
- Heat action plans: led by City and local governments; paid by Philanthropy; A Chief Heat Officer bringing the city’s heat planning together
Sources: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, 2024 · Arsht-Rock: Dhaka North’s Chief Heat Officer, 2023 · World Bank, 2025 · NBC News: school closures, 2024
Adapt the mechanism, not the city: how five cities organise for heat
Amadora, Portugal
- The problem: Rising heat in a dense city with little room for green space, and older and low-income residents at most risk.
- How they work together: Civil Protection is the single focal point: it coordinates the departments, consolidates their information and runs the heatwave response, with the mayor’s support keeping heat a shared priority.
- Authority and money: About €1 million a year for heat activities within Civil Protection’s budget, which the city itself describes as not enough for comprehensive risk management.
- What reaches people: SMS alerts built with a private partner; the Red Cross, fire service and police help spread warnings; health and social teams visit 3,000–4,000 residents twice a week in summer; prepared cooled shelters.
- Still unresolved: Space for greenery in dense streets, and building codes still to be updated.
- Before adapting it, check: Is there one office that can convene the others and hold a heat budget? Who can do home visits at scale?
Incheon, Republic of Korea
- The problem: More heatwave days and tropical nights, with elderly and low-income neighbourhoods most exposed; a sharp rise in heat illness in 2018.
- How they work together: National law treats heatwaves as a disaster, so heat sits inside the city’s disaster structure, led by a Natural Disaster Division, with district headquarters and field units.
- Authority and money: A local heat ordinance (2019) and national grants covering part of project costs; some protection is funded through welfare programmes rather than a heat budget.
- What reaches people: 1,340 heat shelters (2023), shelter locations shared in safety apps, nearly 7,000 volunteer ‘heatwave helpers’, and data analysis to find 52 priority areas for cooling facilities.
- Still unresolved: Competing land uses for urban forests, and long-term funding to scale up.
- Before adapting it, check: Does national law give local authorities a mandate and money for heat? Is there data on where older people live alone?
Cape Town, South Africa
- The problem: Heat that falls hardest on low-income neighbourhoods and informal settlements, where most residents have little greenery and no air conditioning, pool or easy way to the beach.
- How they work together: A coordinating department convenes rather than implements, alongside existing structures: a business continuity committee, the disaster risk management centre and a climate forum.
- Authority and money: No dedicated national heat funding; the city relies on general grants, property taxes and tariffs.
- What reaches people: Outreach in the hottest areas, six spray parks in lower-income neighbourhoods, and cooling centres and real-time heat monitoring in planning.
- Still unresolved: Upkeep of green infrastructure, and resources to scale up public communication, including ‘message coupling’, which it plans to bring from its drought response to heat.
- Before adapting it, check: Is there a body that can convene without taking over others’ mandates? Who keeps essential services running in a heatwave?
Quito, Ecuador
- The problem: A city centre up to 3 °C warmer than its surroundings, while a drought threatens water and hydropower.
- How they work together: Heat is managed inside the city’s long-term climate action plan, with an environment secretariat in the lead and the risk management secretariat alongside it.
- Authority and money: Funding from national, municipal, corporate and international sources; an ordinance on green and blue infrastructure.
- What reaches people: Nature-based solutions and planning rules, with community and international partners.
- Still unresolved: Heat is a lower national priority, and national weather data is incomplete.
- Before adapting it, check: Does your plan sit inside a wider climate plan with its own budget lines? Are the weather data you rely on maintained?
Nairobi, Kenya
- The problem: Rapid development outpacing climate-sensitive planning, and the loss of green space.
- How they work together: Urban heat was made a priority for the first time; work sits with a small climate change department.
- Authority and money: Eight staff for all the department’s activities, no dedicated heat strategy yet, and limited funds.
- What reaches people: Forecasts from the national weather service reach the public through mainstream media; no dedicated heat warning yet.
- Still unresolved: Fragmented, siloed efforts across sectors; no local heat data; low public awareness.
- Before adapting it, check: Starting from little is common. What is the first decision, and the first piece of data, that would let the next step happen?