Improving Heat-Health Response in South Asia

The IMPHRESS project aims to address the challenge of heat-health decision making in South Asia by bringing together an accomplished team of researchers spanning climate science, physiology, social anthropology, community health and health systems research. This diversity of expertise allows IMPHRESS to take a holistic approach that will improve our understanding of the measurement of extreme heat, its impacts as well as determinants of vulnerability in South Asia. By actively engaging with stakeholders such as the India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as local communities in India, the project will generate knowledge and evidence that directly addresses the needs of institutional, policy and community actors at the forefront of the heat-health challenge. This new knowledge includes co-located physiological and environmental measurements, scenarios for extreme heatwave seasons in South Asia and field surveys in two heat stressed sites, all of which will be integrated into a prototype heat-health forecasting system and utilised for participatory heat-health adaptation planning.