Beating the Heat: Investing in Pro-Poor Solutions for Urban Resilience

By Asian Development Bank

Cities in Asia and the Pacific are increasingly at risk of heat waves, which are expected to be more severe and persistent due to global warming. The urban poor are especially vulnerable to heat stress and associated health and productivity impacts as they often work outdoors and tend to live in overcrowded housing without adequate ventilation or cooling. This publication examines opportunities for countries to pursue pro-poor urban resilience initiatives to reduce the impacts of heat stress. It emphasizes the need for policies and investments to be based on long-term planning and actions at all scales: individual and household, neighborhood, and city.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9789292696344

Book preview

BEATING THE HEAT:

INVESTING IN PRO-POOR SOLUTIONS FOR URBAN RESILIENCE

AUGUST 2022

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

© 2022 Asian Development Bank

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Some rights reserved. Published in 2022.

ISBN 978-92-9269-633-7 (print); 978-92-9269-634-4 (electronic); 978-92-9269-635-1 (ebook)

Publication Stock No. TCS220299-2

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/TCS220299-2

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Notes:

In this publication, $ refers to United States dollars.

ADB recognizes China as the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam as Viet Nam, and Bangalore as Bengaluru. In this publication, tables, figures, maps, and boxes without explicit sources are those of the authors.

The cover design is by Lowil Fred Espada and it depicts an urban area at high risk of heat waves.

Contents

Tables, Figures, and Boxes

Foreword

Countries in Asia are experiencing extreme heat events, with temperatures reaching record highs. Such heat waves, or periods of abnormally hot weather, are projected to become more common—with adverse impacts on the lives, livelihoods, health, and productivity of the population. Urban areas are particularly at risk due to their high concentration of built infrastructure and reducing blue and green spaces to accommodate rapid growth. Within urban spaces, poor and vulnerable populations are the hardest hit because of their inadequate living conditions, harsh work environments in informal and often outdoor work, and limited adaptive capacity.

Given this reality, cities in Asia and the Pacific need to prepare for a warmer world. This will require a wide range of pro-poor policies and investments based on long-term planning and must include actions at all scales: individual and household, neighborhood, and city. Such actions also need to respect different contexts, and include strengthening health preparedness; improving housing design, construction, and maintenance; enhancing infrastructure for informal outdoor livelihoods; performing climate-sensitive urban planning and urban design by using innovative technology and practices; and promoting green and blue urban infrastructure.

As countries in Asia and the Pacific step up their climate commitments in the context of urban development, they open many opportunities for pursuing pro-poor urban resilience initiatives to reduce the increasing impacts of heat stress that urban areas face—in particular, the urban poor population. With this publication, we aim to increase awareness of such opportunities in countries. The report provides eight key recommendations that also offer a good basis for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to scale up support for countries in dealing with issues relating to extreme heat. These recommended actions will succeed if cities adopt people-centered and integrated solutions in urban planning, delivery of basic services, health, social protection, livelihoods, gender equality, and environmental management.

Recognizing the importance of these recommendations to achieving ADB’s climate and urban priorities under Strategy 2030, this publication is the result of a multidisciplinary collaboration comprising the Urban Sector Group and the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Thematic Group, with support from the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund.

Noelle O’Brien

Chief of Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Thematic Group concurrently Director, SDCD

Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department

Asian Development Bank

Manoj Sharma

Chief of Urban Sector Group

Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department

Asian Development Bank

Acknowledgments

This report was prepared under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) regional technical assistance (TA) project Advancing Inclusive and Resilient Urban Development Targeted at the Urban Poor (TA9513-REG). The project is financed by the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF), which is administered by ADB with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the governments of Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The report was prepared under the overall guidance of Arghya Sinha Roy, principal climate change specialist (Climate Change Adaptation), Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department (SDCC). The development of the report was led by a team of technical experts coordinated by Robert Wilby. The consultant team included Ashna Singh Mathema (housing), Belinda Tato (urban planning and urban design including related graphics), Katherine Gough (livelihoods), Mohamed El-Sioufi (urban basic services and infrastructure), Robert Wilby (physical climate risk and health), and Tord Kjellstrom (local economy and productivity). Tom Matthews produced the heat index maps in Chapter 2, Kae Sugawara edited the manuscript, and Lowil Espada produced the layout. Production and