Understanding extreme heat and entry points for action
This report examines heat risk through the intersection of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity, showing how impacts emerge across health, infrastructure, livelihoods and essential services. It clarifies key concepts — including extreme heat, heatwaves and urban heat islands — and explains Australia’s approach to measuring heat, defining thresholds and coordinating national alerts. The report identifies practical entry points for action across policy and community levels, providing a foundation for reducing urban heat risk.
Key takeaways
Extreme heat disrupts essential systems — from power and water to health, housing and transport — creating cascading risks that hit cities hardest, where urban heat islands and rapid warming amplify local impacts. Power failures are a major tipping point, as rising demand and stressed infrastructure can trigger widespread service breakdowns. Despite being the deadliest weather‑related hazard, heat is still underestimated and treated as an individual issue rather than a systemic threat requiring collective action. And even when temperatures are the same, impacts differ widely depending on people’s exposure, vulnerabilities and the resilience of the systems around them.
This report forms part of the first Post-Event Review Capability (a systematic framework for analysing disaster events) on extreme heat, with the findings unfolding across three interconnected reports:
- Understanding extreme heat and entry points for action
- Heat stress at work
- Strengthening resilience to extreme heat: An Adelaide case study
Together, they build a layered picture of how extreme heat risk is shaped, experienced and addressed.
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