Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan — South Asia's First City Heat-Health Early-Warning System

After a 2010 heatwave caused a spike in deaths, Ahmedabad piloted in 2013 and fully launched in 2014 India's first municipal Heat Action Plan (HAP). It combines a forecast-based colour-coded alert system (yellow/orange/red), community outreach and media campaigns, and preparedness of hospitals and health workers, with cooling measures such as shaded and cool-roof options in vulnerable neighbourhoods.
A peer-reviewed pilot evaluation (Hess et al., Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2018) compared temperature-mortality relationships in 2007-2010 with 2014-2015. The maximum mortality risk ratio at 47°C fell from 2.34 to 1.25, and an estimated 1,190 deaths per year were avoided (95% CI 162-2,218).
The authors flag limits: heatwave timing, unmeasured air pollution and demographic shifts may confound the comparison, and the design is before/after without a control city. The model has since been adopted in other Indian states and cities. Fit to this catalogue is partial: it is an adaptation governance practice, not a land-based ecosystem service, so ecological dimensions are scored low.

Read the full analysis: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/ahmedabad-resilience-toolkit.pdf