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 report, Rising Temperatures, Deadly Threat: Recommendations to Prepare Outdoor Workers in Ahmedabad, looks at the vulnerability of outdoor workers to extreme heat, examining construction workers' perception of, and vulnerability to, extreme heat exposure. It encourages coordinated early action by government, labor groups, local employers, health care providers, and community stakeholders to effectively reduce workers’ vulnerability to heat and makes recommendations for educational, local employer and government actions to help alleviate heat stress on those working outdoors.

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.

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 slum communities: Rising Temperatures, Deadly Threat: Recommendations for Slum Communities 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