Co-creating Knowledge | 12 Oct, 2026
Key Local Resources on Cooling Extreme Heat
Dear Extreme Heat Cooler!
Everyone has to make an effort to cool our planet. Everyone, including you.
The All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) focuses on mitigating the impacts of extreme heat, especially in vulnerable communities. AIDMI collaborates with local governments, NGOs, and communities to develop and implement heat action plans. These plans include early warning systems, public awareness campaigns, and capacity-building activities. AIDMI also conducts research on heat-related health risks and promotes the use of heat-resistant infrastructure. Through its initiatives, AIDMI aims to reduce heat-related mortality and morbidity, improve community resilience, and advocate for policies that address the challenges posed by extreme heat in India.
Sharing the knowledge that comes from actions on extreme heat is one way to move closer to cooling. With this in mind, AIDMI shares the following research to better evaluate extreme heat projects and programmes.
A. Southasiadisasters.net
| FROM HEAT RISK TO HEAT RESILIENCE
Eleven Years of Local Learning for Action
21 Issues | 2015–2026
500 contributors | 40,000 users | Solutions that work on the ground
Over eleven years, the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) has published 21 issues of Southasiadisasters.net, explored extreme heat as a growing risk to health, livelihoods, infrastructure, and dignity, and set a bottom-up agenda. Starting with local heatwave planning in 2015, these cutting-edge publications examine avoidable deaths, unequal exposure, community-led adaptation, urban cooling, early warning, anticipatory finance and heat-resilient infrastructure. Experiences from India and beyond connect affected communities’ perspectives with practical action and policy changes, leading to solutions that work on the ground. |
- Local Innovation to Global Action for Heat, Health, and Livelihoods: Resilience Starts at Home, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 234, September 2026. https://aidmi.org/local-innovation-to-global-action-for-heat-health-and-livelihoods-resilience-starts-at-home/
- Extreme Heat is a Slow-Onset and Unequal Urban Disaster, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 233, August 2026. https://aidmi.org/extreme-heat-is-a-slow-onset-and-unequal-urban-disaster/
- Heat-Resilient Infrastructure: Lessons from Emerging Global Experience, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 232, July 2026. https://aidmi.org/heat-resilient-infrastructure-lessons-from-emerging-global-experience/
- Early Warning! Early Action! Early Finance?, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 231, April 2026. https://aidmi.org/early-warning-early-action-early-finance/
- Small Heat Resilience Measures: Big Impact in Small Towns and on Small Businesses in India, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 228, January 2026. https://aidmi.org/small-heat-resilience-measures-big-impact-in-small-towns-and-on-small-businesses-in-india/
- Towards Climate and Extreme Heat Resilience: Lessons from African and Asian Communities, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 227, December 2025. https://aidmi.org/towards-climate-and-extreme-heat-resilience-lessons-from-african-and-asian-communities/
- From Heatwaves to Cooling Futures: Maharashtra’s Leadership in Climate Action in India, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 226, November 2025. https://aidmi.org/from-heatwaves-to-cooling-futures-maharashtras-leadership-in-climate-action-in-india/
- Nature-Based Cooling Solutions for Cities, Issue No. 224, September 2025. https://aidmi.org/nature-based-cooling-solutions-for-cities/
- Coastal Disasters with a Focus on Extreme Heat: Perspectives from South Asia, Issue No. 223, August 2025. https://aidmi.org/coastal-disasters-with-a-focus-on-extreme-heat-perspectives-from-south-asia/
- Heat as Humanitarian Crisis: What Local Organisations Are Doing, Issue No. 222, July 2025. https://aidmi.org/heat-as-humanitarian-crisis-what-local-organisations-are-doing/
- Urgency of Urban Heat Adaptation, Southasiadisasters.net Issue No. 220, May 2025. https://aidmi.org/urgency-of-urban-heat-adaptation-2/
- Harnessing Collective Knowledge: Advancing Adaptation Research and Action through Tracking, Learning, and Sharing Around Extreme Heat, Southasiadisasters.net Issue No. 219, April 2025. https://aidmi.org/harnessing-collective-knowledge-advancing-adaptation-research-and-action-through-tracking-learning-and-sharing-around-extreme-heat/
- Key Action Areas for Addressing Extreme Heat in the Asia-Pacific: Lessons from Regional Platforms, Southasiadisasters.net Issue No. 217, March 2025. https://aidmi.org/key-action-areas-for-addressing-extreme-heat-in-the-asia-pacific-lessons-from-regional-platforms/
- Evaluating Extreme Heat Projects and Programmes: Key Lessons, Southasiadisasters.net issue No. 214, October 2024. https://aidmi.org/evaluating-extreme-heat-projects-and-programmes-key-lessons/
- Accelerating Extreme Heat Responses: Perspectives from India, Southasiadisasters.net issue No. 213, August 2024. https://aidmi.org/accelerating-extreme-heat-responses-perspectives-from-india/
- Extreme Heat Adaptation and Mitigation Programming: Lessons from the Affected Population, Southasiadisasters.net issue No. 212, July 2024. https://aidmi.org/extreme-heat-adaptation-and-mitigation-programming-lessons-from-the-affected-population/
- Heatwave Deaths Are Avoidable, Southasiadisasters.net issue No. 210, May 2024. https://aidmi.org/heatwave-deaths-are-avoidable/
- Urgency of Heatwave Risk Management, Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 209, March 2024. https://aidmi.org/urgency-of-heatwave-risk-management/
- Building Adaptation and Resilience to Heatwaves, Southasiadisasters.net Issue No. 204, January 2023. https://aidmi.org/building-adaptation-and-resilience-to-heat-waves1/
- Rising Risk of Heatwaves in Asia, Southasiadisasters.net, issue No. 174, October 2018. https://aidmi.org/rising-risk-of-heat-waves-in-india/
- Local Level Planning to Cope with Heatwaves in India, issue No. 132, June 2015. https://aidmi.org/local-level-planning-to-cope-with-heat-waves-in-india/
| These 21 issues share a central lesson: heat resilience must begin with the people most exposed to risk. Early warnings need to lead to timely action. Heat action plans must protect livelihoods as well as health. Investments in cooling, infrastructure and risk finance should reach women, informal workers, small businesses and underserved communities. The next priority is to connect locally owned measures with sustained finance, evaluation and public policy, turning accumulated lessons into exploding actions for protection against avoidable losses due to extreme heat, anywhere. |
B. Policy Support Articles
- Agenda for Mumbai Climate Week, February 2026. https://aidmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Policy-Brief_Small-Heat-Resilience-Measures.pdf
- Planning for Extreme Heat: Lessons and Recommendations for South Asia, Blog, HOISA, July 2024. https://www.hoisa.org/post/planning-for-extreme-heat-lessons-and-recommendation-for-south-asia
- Are we learning from the past? Cooling lessons from India’s extreme heat, Blog, IDS, May 2024. https://aidmi.org/are-we-learning-from-the-past-cooling-lessons-from-indias-extreme-heat/
- The Future of Heatwaves in South Asia, Blog, HOISA, April 2024. https://www.hoisa.org/post/future-of-heatwaves-in-south-asoa
- Observing Heatwaves in Light of Adaptation and Mitigation, Blog, HOISA, May 2023. https://www.hoisa.org/post/observing-heatwaves-in-light-of-adaptation-and-mitigation
- Observing Heat Waves Differently, Blog, HOISA, April 2023. https://www.hoisa.org/post/observing-heat-waves-differently
C. Knowledge Products
- Locally Led and Adapted: Focus on Extreme Heat, Action Brief, AIDMI, October 2025. https://aidmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Locally-Led-and-Adaptted_Extreme-Heat.pdf
- Addressing the Demands of Small Business Communities for Building Extreme Heat Resilience in Urban India – A Case Study, November 2024, AIDMI. https://aidmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Addressing-the-Demands-of-Small-Business-Communities.pdf
- Building extreme heat resilience for cotton farmers in India: evidence from Gujarat and Maharashtra. IIED, London. Report Published by IIED, September 2024. https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/2024-09/22481IIED.pdf.
- Guidelines: Precautions to be Observed by Schools to Combat the Ill-effects of the Heatwave (in Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Panjabi, and English languages), AIDMI, April 2024. https://aidmi.org/heatwave-preparedness/
- Local Heatwave Action Planning, Action Brief, AIDMI, December 2023. https://aidmi.org/local-heat-wave-action-planning/
- Advisory for Protection Against Expected Heatwave 2023 (in Seven Languages), AIDMI, March 2023. https://aidmi.org/advisory-for-protection-against-expected-heat-wave/
- Lessons from new weather events: Heatwaves, Adapting Humanitarian Action to the Effects of Climate Change: An ALNAP Lessons Paper, October 2021. https://alnap.org/help-library/resources/alnap-lessons-paper-adapting-humanitarian-action-to-the-effects-of-climate-change/
- Urban Resilience in South Asia, Experience Learning Series No. 77, March 2021. https://aidmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Urban-Resilience-in-South-Asia.pdf
- Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan 2019 https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/ahmedabad-heat-action-plan-2019-update.pdf
- Urban Resilience and Children in India’s Urban Centers, Experience Learning Series No. 69, October 2016.
- Mitigation of Heat Impacts on Children as a Priority of India’s Climate Change Agenda (A Study Report), Experience Learning Series No. 68, July 2016.
- Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2012. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/SREX_Full_Report-1.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
| D. Local Research and Evaluation Resources |
The above are essential resources for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners who are dedicated to inclusive, scalable, and equitable humanitarian system-wide solutions for one of the most urgent climate challenges of our time, extreme heat.
Let us know what we can do for you to take ahead this agenda in South Asia. How can we jointly take these ideas to more individuals and institutions? Please email Vishal Pathak at knowingrisk@aidmi.org. Thank you so much.
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