Higher daily peak temperatures and longer, more intense heat waves are becoming increasingly frequent globally due to climate change. Extreme heat events already have had a significant impact in India, where summer temperatures are historically high. Although national programs in India exist to address many effects of climate change, the country has yet to implement strategies to adapt to increasing heat. Through the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and a partnership of organisations, Ahmedabad is the first Indian city to create a comprehensive early warning system and preparedness plan for extreme heat events. This brief is one of four published to provide specific recommendations for leading stakeholders and the most vulnerable residents who will be impacted by extreme heat: key government agencies, health care professionals, outdoor workers, and slum communities.

This brief, Rising Temperatures, Deadly Threat: Recommendations for Slum Communities in Ahmedabad, looks at how, in the city of Ahmedabad, slum communities have greater exposure to extreme heat, and residents are more susceptible to its negative health effects. Compounding this is the fact that the almost two million Ahmedabad residents living in slums have fewer options available to adapt to rising temperatures. All of these factors increase vulnerability to heat and result in greater impacts on these communities. This paper identifies the specific factors that increase exposure and vulnerability to extreme heat that are necessary to craft targeted recommendations for building resilience to future heat events.

For further reading on Ahmedabad's heat action plan, see below:

• Heat Action Plan 2013: Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan 2013: Guide to extreme heat planning in Ahmedabad, India
• Project homepage: Climate change: addressing heat-health vulnerability in rapidly urbanising regions of Western India
• For Ahmedabad's officials: Rising Temperatures, Deadly Threat: Recommendations for Ahmedabad’s Government Officials
• For health professionals in Ahmedabad: Rising Temperatures, Deadly Threat: Recommendations for Health Professionals in Ahmedabad
• For Ahmedabad's outdoor workers: Rising Temperatures, Deadly Threat: Recommendations to Prepare Outdoor Workers in Ahmedabad
• Survey on household vulnerability: A Cross-Sectional, Randomized Cluster Sample Survey of Household Vulnerability to Extreme Heat among Slum Dwellers in Ahmedabad, India
• Development and implementation of plan: Development and Implementation of South Asia’s First Heat-Health Action Plan in Ahmedabad
• Study on mortality of 2010 heat wave: Heat-Related Mortality in India: Excess All-Cause Mortality Associated with the 2010 Ahmedabad Heat Wave