Combating Heat Stress in South Asia - a Cross-CARIAA effort

Combating Heat Stress in South Asia - a Cross-CARIAA effort

Partners: IDRC, WoTR, ALTERRA (Hi-AWARE) and SDPI (PRISE)

Location: India and Pakistan

Time frame: September 2016 -  September 2017

Team Members:  Dr. Fahad Saeed, Waqas Imran,  Ayesha Amjad Qaisrani

Introduction: This cross-consortia synergies project aims to bring together current CARIAA research approaches into heat and heat stress in South Asia. Introducing the quantitative measurement approach developed for the urban HI-AWARE sites to the rural ASSAR sites, the study aims to analyze the exposure to heat stress and the suitability of various adaptive measures in rural India. This will be linked to SDPI and WOTR's insights derived from participatory research aimed at better understanding of the underlying drivers and barriers behind coping mechanisms and (mal) adaptation.

Objectives: This study aims to answer the following key research questions: 1)Which communities/population categories (including gender) are more exposed to high temperatures due to work/household chores demands? 2)How do the houses of the socially-differentiated groups (better-off, middle class, poor and very poor) as well as the different communities differ and which of those more affected by high temperatures? 3)What are the coping mechanisms/adaptive measures adopted in high temperatures by the different categories of households? 4)Could some aspects of rural houses be suitable for urban houses to make them more heat resilient 

Project Status: SPDI has conducted a household survey in rural and urban areas of Faisalabad and is currently in the process of analyzing the data. For more information: Awais Umer, Project Assistant? awais@sdpi.org?