#heat-governance
Issues, solutions, and case studies for heat-governance
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Issues 1
#00067Most ceramic-cooler designs are prototypes or art pieces — street-scale durability and maintenance are unproven
Most widely-publicised ceramic cooler designs (bloc°, TerraCool) are studio or exhibition prototypes with no street deployment record. CoolAnt/Ant Studio is the exception. Terracotta durability, scaling, biofouling, pump upkeep, and multi-season public-realm performance remain un
Solutions 4
#00194Statutory heat rules for outdoor work: WBGT stop-work thresholds, midday bans and funded inspections
National, enforceable heat rules for outdoor work: rest, shade, water and scheduling duties anchored on wet-bulb globe temperature stop-work thresholds rather than clock hours alone, backed by funded inspection capacity. Time-of-day bans by themselves miss dangerous humid days.
#00183Create a funded municipal heat office with an annually updated heat action plan
Give one named municipal officer a budget line and operational control over heat: early-warning protocols, cooling and respite operations, and year-round mitigation, revised in an annual heat action plan. Funded offices cut deaths within years; unfunded plans and advisory posts d
#00181Vulnerable-person registry with scripted phone check-ins during alerts, opt-out by default
A city registry of heat-vulnerable residents (isolated elderly, people with disabilities or chronic illness) paired with scripted phone check-ins by trained agents during heat alerts, escalating to in-person visits when calls go unanswered. Opt-out enrollment by default — opt-in
#00008Passive-cooling urban design plus formal heat governance
Reintroduce passive cooling from traditional hot-climate design — shaded streets, courtyards, underground air channels — and pair it with heat governance: naming and categorizing heatwaves so the public treats heat as seriously as storms.
Case studies 14
United States
FailedUS Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), proposed Heat Injury and Illness Prevention rule · since 2024 · National
Documents the failure of the federal regulatory route to outdoor-worker heat protection in the United States. OSHA published a proposed Heat Injury and Illness Prevention rule (NPRM) in August 2024 and held public heari…
US federal budget (OSHA rulemaking) · 1 source
Spain
PartialGovernment of Spain (Royal Decree-law 4/2023), enforced through the labour inspectorate · since 2023 · National
Spain adopted Royal Decree-law 4/2023 following the heatstroke death of street sweeper Jose Antonio Gonzalez in Madrid in July 2022. The decree requires outdoor work to be adapted during extreme heat episodes and allows…
Spanish state budget (labour inspectorate)
Qatar
SuccessQatar Ministry of Labour, with the International Labour Organization; thresholds informed by FAME Lab field research · since 2021 · National
Qatar's 2021 Ministerial Decision, developed with the ILO after FAME Lab field research on worker heat strain, created a national outdoor-work heat regime combining a clock-hour ban (10:00–15:30, June 1–September 15) wi…
Government of Qatar, with ILO technical cooperation
Wiener Stadtgaerten (MA 42, City of Vienna parks department) with Raintime GmbH · since 2020 · Neighborhood
In 2020 Vienna converted Esterhazypark into its first Cooling Park, combining a misting Coolspot pavilion and mist showers (delivered with Raintime GmbH), depaving, 8,600+ perennials, and a 400+ m² green wall on the par…
City of Vienna · 1 source
India
FailedIndian state and city governments (over 100 heat action plans adopted across the country) · National
After Ahmedabad's 2013 Heat Action Plan showed peer-reviewed mortality benefits, over 100 Heat Action Plans (HAPs) proliferated across India by 2023, mostly copying the Ahmedabad document without its coalition, accounta…
Largely unfunded: heat is not a notified disaster in India, so no standard disaster funding channel applies to heat action plans
Freetown, Sierra Leone
OngoingFreetown City Council, Chief Heat Officer Eugenia Kargbo, under Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr · since 2021 · City
Freetown appointed Africa's first Chief Heat Officer, Eugenia Kargbo, in 2021, under Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. The signature intervention is market shade covers in three markets, co-designed with the market women who wo…
Arsht-Rockefeller Chief Heat Officer program seeded the post; World Bank funded the first weather stations; donor funding is the binding constraint on scaling
Athens, Greece
OngoingCity of Athens, Chief Heat Officer (Eleni Myrivili 2021–2023, Elissavet Bargianni since 2023) · since 2021 · City
Athens appointed Europe's first Chief Heat Officer (Eleni Myrivili) in 2021 under the Arsht-Rockefeller Chief Heat Officer program; Elissavet Bargianni has held the post since 2023. The office introduced a health-based…
€120K · City of Athens budget (approximately 120,000 EUR per year); CHO post seeded under the Arsht-Rockefeller Chief Heat Officer program; physical project work leverages EU and philanthropic funding
Miami-Dade County, Chief Heat Officer Jane Gilbert · since 2021 · Region
In 2021 Miami-Dade County appointed the world's first Chief Heat Officer (Jane Gilbert), a post seeded by an Arsht-Rockefeller grant. The county declared an official Heat Season and published an Extreme Heat Action Plan…
Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center grant (seeded the Chief Heat Officer post) plus county funds · 1 source
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
SuccessCity of Phoenix, Office of Heat Response and Mitigation (founding director David Hondula) · since 2021 · City
In October 2021 Phoenix created the first publicly funded city heat office in the United States, the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, under director David Hondula. The office publishes an annual heat response pla…
City of Phoenix funds, federal pandemic relief, opioid settlement funds; over 5 million USD assembled for 2026 operations
Paris, France
PartialCity of Paris (municipal social action services), triage script co-written with Necker Hospital doctors · since 2004 · City
The CHALEX registry (since renamed REFLEX) was created in 2004 after the August 2003 heatwave that killed 14,802 people in France, roughly 82 percent of them aged 75 and over. Parisians who are elderly, disabled or isol…
City of Paris municipal budget, within the framework of France's Plan National Canicule · 1 source
Seville, Spain
OngoingCity of Seville with Atlantic Council Arsht-Rock (Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance), AEMET, Universidad de Sevilla and Pablo de Olavide University · since 2022 · City
In June 2022 Seville launched proMETEO Sevilla, the first system in the world to tie heat-wave forecasts to health outcomes and to name and categorize heat waves the way storms are named. A three-tier categorization wei…
City of Seville; Atlantic Council Arsht-Rock · 3 sources
Miami-Dade County, with the Atlantic Council Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance) · since 2021 · City
In 2021 Miami-Dade County appointed Jane Gilbert as the world's first Chief Heat Officer — a dedicated municipal post to coordinate extreme-heat response across agencies that otherwise treat heat as no one's specific re…
Miami-Dade County; Atlantic Council Arsht-Rock · 2 sources
Ahmedabad, India
SuccessAhmedabad Municipal Corporation, with NRDC, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Public Health Foundation of India · since 2013 · City
After a 2010 heatwave killed 1,344 people, Ahmedabad built South Asia's first Heat Action Plan (2013) — a governance-led response combining color-coded early-warning red alerts pushed to residents, hospital "heat wards"…
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation with NRDC and academic/public-health partners · 3 sources
Seville, Spain
SuccessCity of Seville with University of Seville (research evaluation) · 2025 · City
Seville revived a roughly 3,000-year-old passive-cooling technique, channeling air through underground galleries (a qanat-style system) to pre-cool it before delivering it to buildings and public space. The city has lon…
1 source