Making Delhi Heat-Resilient: A roadmap with the focus on vulnerable groups

The study aims to assess Delhi's increasing heat stress and propose a dual-strategy roadmap that combines year-round city-wide heat resilience measures with targeted interventions for vulnerable groups, such as construction workers, street vendors, informal settlement residents, and children, to reduce the impacts of extreme heat. Delhi is in the grip of an escalating urban heat crisis: dangerously high ‘feels-like’ temperatures are causing fatalities, and are projected to result in severe economic losses equivalent to up to 4.5 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). Geospatial analysis confirms that 75.78 per cent of Delhi’s area is persistently heat-stressed, a condition worsened by the dramatic shrinking of the city’s green cover.

To mitigate this pervasive threat, this study proposes a dual-strategy roadmap: • Implementing year-round, city-wide actions such as mandating thermally efficient roofs and utilising better heat indicators. • Focused interventions for exposed populations, including enforcing mandatory cooling breaks, staggering work timings, and providing dedicated fiscal support during extreme heat emergencies