TY - JOUR PY - 2022// TI - A heat vulnerability index: spatial patterns of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity for urbanites of four cities of India JO - International journal of environmental research and public health A1 - Rathi, Suresh Kumar A1 - Chakraborty, Soham A1 - Mishra, Saswat Kishore A1 - Dutta, Ambarish A1 - Nanda, Lipika SP - e283 EP - e283 VL - 19 IS - 1 N2 - Extreme heat and heat waves have been established as disasters which can lead to a great loss of life. Several studies over the years, both within and outside of India, have shown how extreme heat events lead to an overall increase in mortality. However, the impact of extreme heat, similar to other disasters, depends upon the vulnerability of the population. This study aims to assess the extreme heat vulnerability of the population of four cities with different characteristics across India. This cross-sectional study included 500 households from each city across the urban localities (both slum and non-slum) of Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, Karimnagar in Telangana, Kolkata in West Bengal and Angul in Odisha. Twenty-one indicators were used to construct a household vulnerability index to understand the vulnerability of the cities. The results have shown that the majority of the households fell under moderate to high vulnerability level across all the cities. Angul and Kolkata were found to be more highly vulnerable as compared to Ongole and Karimnagar. Further analysis also revealed that household vulnerability is more significantly related to adaptive capacity than sensitivity and exposure. Heat Vulnerability Index can help in identifying the vulnerable population and scaling up adaptive practices.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1661-7827 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010283 ID - ref1 ER -