Building a cooler future amid chronic heat

As temperatures continue to rise, researchers from the University of Leeds are working with partners in India to understand how heat is affecting marginalised people. Their findings are informing the development of sustainable cooling solutions.

The project, focused on Pune in western India, is a partnership with Dr Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture (BNCA), a women's higher education institution in Pune, and Barefoot Story, a social enterprise specialising in architecture, interiors and urban design.

The research centres on informal settlements, often referred to as slums, where residents are economically and socially vulnerable – a situation compounded by extreme heat. It aims to include these people in designing the solutions.

This collaborative approach ensured that local perspectives informed every stage of the research and helped highlight issues that might otherwise have been overlooked in urban planning and climate policy.

Sumedha Basu, Postdoctoral researcher

These communities have limited access to cooling technologies, reliable infrastructure and green spaces, while overcrowded housing and outdoor work can intensify exposure to dangerous temperatures.

A method called participatory systems mapping has brought together stakeholders to create maps providing a bird's-eye view of Pune's current cooling landscape, with the aim of exploring future change.

For municipal authority policymakers, the maps offer a practical tool for understanding how decisions in one area can affect outcomes elsewhere across the city.

Dr Catherine Bale, Associate Professor of Sustainable Urban Energy Systems in the School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability at the University of Leeds, said: “Rising temperatures are a big issue. Pune used to be considered to have a comfortable climate. Now it is becoming very uncomfortable with chronic heat stress and prolonged, hotter summers.

“The city has rapidly expanded with many buildings having AC but around 40% of the population live in informal settlements. The people here are vulnerable.”

The team worked collaboratively with residents in Pune's Kishkindha Nagar and Shinde Vasti settlements to understand their experiences of heat stress and the cooling solutions they rely on.

Heat stress describes the strain placed on the body when high temperatures make it difficult to cool down effectively.

Dr Bale added: “We asked people what they thought about how they currently cope with the heat and what they would like to see from local decision making.”

Postdoctoral researcher Sumedha Basu said: “Rather than treating residents as participants, we recognised them as key knowledge holders whose lived experience is essential for understanding the challenges posed by extreme heat. We found that heat had become much more intolerable for them.

“This collaborative approach ensured that local perspectives informed every stage of the research and helped highlight issues that might otherwise have been overlooked in urban planning and climate policy.

“Policy makers need to integrate a heat action plan with sustainable cooling plans. For example, citizens want cool roofs, community cooling centres and retrofitting of homes to increase long term heat resilience for the most vulnerable.”

The team has created practical resources for local communities, including educational playing cards and a video produced in the Bharati language. The project aims to empower communities to participate in conversations about climate adaptation.

Dr Bale added: “As climate change increases demand for cooling worldwide, these insights are becoming critical for both developed and developing countries.

“We can draw on lessons learned in India to examine how communities can respond to rising temperatures while reducing energy use and carbon emissions.”

Partnership work

BNCA helped to set up the network of residents and city stakeholders, whilst Barefoot Story co-produced insights and played a key role in fieldwork.

Namrata Dhamanakar, Professor at the Department of Environmental Architecture and Planning (DEAP) at BNCA, said: “Through post-occupancy evaluation studies and field-based data collection, we worked closely with residents to understand how heat affects their homes, health and everyday lives.

“By bringing residents’ lived experiences into the research, the contribution of ground-level evidence on heat stress, thermal comfort and coping strategies is clearly seen, thereby supporting the development of more inclusive and locally relevant approaches to sustainable cooling.”

Mandar Athavale, Assistant Professor, BNCA and co-founder, Barefoot Story, added: “Most research on heat and health in informal settlements rests on secondary data.

“This project begins an enquiry from the ground up, gathering residents' own accounts of how heat affects their health and daily lives. Built on the trust Barefoot has developed with these communities over time, it brings forward stories that numbers alone cannot capture.”

Further information

More details on the project can be found at https://urbanheatsystems.leeds.ac.uk

Photos: Sumedha Basu

Please contact Richard Abbott in the University of Leeds press office at [email protected].