Tracing the urban heat action plan
Since 2013 - when the first urban heat action plan developed for any city in the ‘Global South’ was launched in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat - over 30 cities across South Asia have adopted their own heat preparedness plans.
These plans are constantly anchored by references to ‘the local’. Yet, in their explanation of vulnerability and strategies for managing heat in the future any actual urban context - the local, that is, with all its specificity of history, economy, society and politics - often appears to fade into the background.
As we follow the increased use of this specific planning tool, we are beginning to explore how urban heat is being governed and accounted for in a very specific way.