Global temperatures continue to set record highs, with recent years among the hottest on record. Extreme heat is greatly affecting human health and the economy worldwide and urban areas are particularly at risk of extreme heat. The number of cities exposed to extreme temperatures will nearly triple over the next decades. By 2050, more than 970 cities will experience average summertime temperature highs of 35˚C (95°F). With trends of rapid urbanization, aging populations, and increased temperatures, the risk posed by extreme heat will only increase.
The magnitude of future impacts from extreme heat will largely depend on global mitigation efforts, local heat governance, and response plans.
Cities have a unique potential to adapt to changing heat risks through effective risk management at multiple levels within a city, connecting policies and incentives, and strengthening community adaptation capacity.
This directory is a collaborative space dedicated to sharing knowledge, tools, and best practices related to Urban Heat. Whether you’re a practitioner, researcher, policymaker, or community leader, you’ll find a wide range of resources here.
We also invite you to contribute: if you have valuable insights, documents, or tools to share, please add them to the directory to help others.
Browse the Urban Heat Library
Understanding urban heat
Assessing heat risk
Heat solutions
Heat and equity
Communicating heat risk
Related organizations
The Global Heat Health Information Network is an independent forum of scientists, practitioners, and policy-makers focused on improving capacity to protect populations from the avoidable health risks of extreme heat in our changing climate. Resources can be found here »
EHRA was developed in 2020 to accelerate action and aims to deliver heat-resilient solutions to 500 million people worldwide by 2030. Resources can be found here »
Organisation leading work on occupation heat stress and chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDnT). Resources can be found here »
The Climate Centre supports the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and its partners to reduce the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on vulnerable people, including extreme heat. Resources can be found here »
Tip! There are health focal points at meteorological institutes: to learn more about heat risks and early warning systems in your country, many meteorological institutes have health focal points, to whom you can reach out. Resources can be found here »
C40 Cities is a global network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities that are united in action to confront the climate crisis. Resources can be found here »
Part of C40 and led by the City of Athens, is the Cool Cities Network, which have prioritised focus areas around which they are actively sharing policies and strategies on urban heat resilience with one another. Resources can be found here »
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is a global network working with more than 2500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Resources can be found here »
We bring together over 200 Chief Resilience Officers, partners, practitioners and researchers for a common goal. Resources can be found here »
GCoM is the largest global alliance for city climate leadership, built upon the commitment of over 12,500 cities and local governments. Resources can be found here »
Cool Infrastructures brings together a team of researchers to produce context-based studies of exposure and adaptation to heat in cities across south Asia, southeast Asia and west Africa. Resources can be found here »
Contribute to this directory
Please get in touch if you have resources that you would like to share with the Urban Heat community or organisations you would like to see promoted here.
I’ve got something to share…
Share your feedback
Your feedback is important to us and helps us improve. If you have any suggestions or ideas, we'd love to hear them.
Submit feedbackIn partnership with
Powered by:
