Five shifts to rethink urban heat assessment and action
Urban heat risk is intensifying, yet many cities continue to rely on static assessment approaches that inadequately capture how risk evolves spatiotemporally. We argue for a more dynamic and context-sensitive approach to urban heat assessment and action. We outline five shifts that recognize the interacting roles of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and adaptive responses, and propose a decision-support framework to support more targeted, equitable, and actionable urban heat preparedness and adaptation.
Authors
- Ashish Sharma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9332-8256)
- Winston Chow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1819-597X)
- Rajesh Kumar
- Eric Klinenberg
Institutions
- NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- New York University (US)
- Singapore Management University (SG)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Urban Sustainability
- Published
- 2026-07-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00451-9
- Primary Topic
- Urban Heat Island Mitigation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Office of Science
- Biological and Environmental Research