The Oxford University study, published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society, looked at exposure to heat rather than just exposure to it.
A study conducted by the University of Oxford and published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society, which ranked 205 major cities around the world according to their heat risk metrics, revealed that more than 95 percent of the cities most at risk are concentrated in South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Aside from relying solely on exposure indicators, the study also looks at how “social vulnerabilities and infrastructural capacities” influence people’s response and preparedness to rising global temperatures.
Asia and Africa are most at risk
According to the list cited in a July 6 advertisement by Oxford University, which looked only at cities with a population of more than 1 million, the Iraqi city of Basra ranked first while Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat ranked second. The study uses a range of tools to go beyond mere temperature metrics and look at the city’s overall preparedness for the temperatures it is now beginning to experience.
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“Exposure alone is not sufficient to predict risk,” the researchers wrote. “Several highly exposed cities (such as Bangkok and Jeddah) rank lower due to their strong adaptive capacity, while others (such as Karachi, Faisalabad, and Kaduna) face severe risks with moderate exposure.”
A total of 14 Indian cities made their way to the list, including some of the country’s major commercial and economic centers such as Bengaluru in Karnataka, Madurai and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, and Pune, Nagpur and Mumbai in Maharastra.
“Heat risk in cities is not determined solely by temperature extremes, but by the combined effects of environmental conditions, including humidity, mean radiant temperature, wind speed, sociodemographic vulnerability, and system-level adaptive capacity,” the authors add.
The study later stressed the need to “enhance urban heat resilience” by looking for alternatives other than energy-dependent coolants such as air conditioners that ultimately contribute to the vicious cycle of global warming. Instead, the study argues that there is an urgent need to reduce exposure, address social and economic vulnerability, and invest in infrastructure to combat rising global temperatures.
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List of cities most exposed to heat hazards
Here is the complete list of top cities ranked according to their heat risk rating grids:
- Basra, Iraq
- Ahmedabad, India
- Bamako, Mali
- Nagpur, India
- Quezon City, Philippines
- Baghdad, Iraq
- Madurai, India
- Faisalabad, Pakistan
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Hyderabad, Pakistan
- Barranquilla, Colombia
- Ibadan, Nigeria
- Port Harcourt, Nigeria
- Conakry, Guinea
- Bhopal, India
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Kaduna, Nigeria
- Bandung, Indonesia
- Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- Kanpur, India
- Luanda, Angola
- Cairo, Egypt
- Pune, India
- Kinshasa, Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Manila, Philippines
- Patna, India
- Manaus, Brazil
- Lahore, Pakistan
- Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
- Rawalpindi, Pakistan
- Hyderabad, India
- Accra, Ghana
- Bangalore, India
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Kolkata, India
- Jaipur, India
- Palembang, Indonesia
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Benin City, Nigeria
- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- Lucknow, India
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- Surabaja, Indonesia
- Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Mumbai, India
- Goiânia, Brazil
- Merida, Mexico
- Maputo, Mozambique
- Chennai, India
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The full chart ranks cities based on measures of total population, natural hazard score, natural vulnerability score, natural life cycle assessment (LCA score, and composite risk score).
Stuti Gupta is a content producer at Hindustan Times, based in New Delhi, where she is part of the general news team, tasked with reporting on events across the country that impact the local and international environment. In her role at HT, she is responsible for monitoring incoming news updates, packaging stories and publishing them in a format that best suits her purpose. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from St. Xavier’s, Mumbai, and is interested in working in international affairs. Aside from her interest in the geopolitical world, she is a reader, writer, speaker, debater, and learner who loves getting new information. She has been recognized for her previous literary work at an international level having won the Gold Prize, Gold Prize and Silver Prize in various years participating in the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition along with winning Third Prize and publishing her story in Children’s World in 2017. Except for academic and professional endeavours, she has a passion for traveling to new places, exploring new cultures and cuisines, documenting them through words and images and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. She is also very passionate about studying and actively participating in art forms such as cinema, dance, theatre, and music as a tool for cultural storytelling.Read more
