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Urban heat

During heat waves, the highest temperatures are often found in urbanized areas.

By 2070, 3.5 billion people will be heavily affected by heat, 1.6 billion of whom will live in urban areas (Chi Xu et al. 2020). Rising temperatures can negatively impact vulnerable people, workers, infrastructure and even GDP.

As the world warms, there is an urgent need to find ways to prevent the worst. Heat is a growing global challenge for communities large and small, across every development context, and requires collaboration amongst a wide array of disciplines and topic areas.

The uban heat island effect explained.
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A woman who sells water on the street in Accra, Ghana, carries her load balanced on her head.
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Ghana: Cities need more trees to stay cool

Rapid urbanisation in Ghana is intensifying dangerous urban heat, and scaling up protected urban tree cover and green infrastructure is essential to cool cities, reduce health and productivity risks, and build climate resilience.

Conversation Media Group, the
Heat stress and urban resilience: alternative cooling strategies to combat extreme heat in the urban environment thumbnail
Documents and publications
Heat stress and urban resilience: alternative cooling strategies to combat extreme heat in the urban environment

Solar-powered open-air cooling shelters can strengthen urban resilience to extreme heat by providing low-energy, outage-resilient relief, as shown through a pilot initiative in Philadelphia’s Hunting Park neighborhood.

University of Pennsylvania
More intense and equal compound heatwaves driven by urbanization thumbnail
Documents and publications
More intense and equal compound heatwaves driven by urbanization

This study highlights the impact of the urbanization on UCHWs and associated inequalities, which is crucial for sustainability of cities.

npj Urban Sustainability (Nature)
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Australia: A model for urban resilience

Australia’s most populous city faces a worrying outlook: Heat-related deaths in Sydney could rise by up to 444 percent under current warming trajectories, according to Australia’s first-ever national climate risk assessment, released in September 2025.

Esri
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New online library on urban heat

The Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, an IFRC partner organization, has posted an Urban Heat Library mini-site as a “collaborative space dedicated to sharing knowledge, tools, and best practices related to urban heat".

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Man using a cup to drink water
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In graphs: How extreme heat will affect urban health

Rising temperatures are already impacting millions of city dwellers. What is happening and what might be done about it?

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Update
Australia: Why aren't we cooling cities and towns when we know how to?

Australia already knows how to cool cities, yet we are failing to do it. Why?

Conversation Media Group, the
Research briefs
Greening school playgrounds can improve quality of life

A new study finds greening school playgrounds can improve quality of life in cities and help deal with climate change.

Open University of Catalonia - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
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