Community HATS
Heat Adaptation and Treatment Strategies in South Asia
SEWA: Self Employed Women's Association Harvard Salata Institute Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University
Heat, Work, and Human Health
Ninety percent of India’s labor force works in the informal economy - as daily wage earners, working on farms, in mines, on saltpans, at construction sites, on streets; or indoors in workshops, or even from their own homes.
Their lives inhabit impervious urban spaces, poorly ventilated indoors paces, dense built environments and denuded landscapes. Their vulnerability to heat is compounded by limited control over the many microenvironments in which they work and live.
Climate Models: Obscuring the Human Scale
Our understanding of heat risks is informed by climate models constructed at a scale that does not capture the heterogeneity of the underlying human experience.
Monochromatic swathes are overlaid on landmasses that are inhabited by billions. Global averages like 1.5 or 2 degrees represent neither the lived reality of the working poor around the world, nor the impact of heat on human health and well-being
Time, Place, and Person Do microenvironments matter?
We are measuring temperature and related parameters in the various microenvironments that the poor working women in Gujarat inhabit.
What is the relationship between weather station or satellite data and the actual temperatures on the streets, the construction sites, the farms and the homes that the poor inhabit?
How do these empirical observations inform climate models? Can they?
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1
Three Workers and Their Microenvironments
We looked closely at the microenvironments of Shobhaben, Madhuben, and Mehulbhai , measuring the experience of heat in their workplaces and homes.
2
Shobhaben: A Market-Vendor
Shobhaben is a Market-Vendor who lives in Naroda.
3
Shobhaben: Her Home
Her home is in a three-story, cream-color painted, concrete building in a highly clustered neighborhood of one to three-story buildings.
The neighborhood has no vegetation, is dominated by impervious surfaces, and hosts dense living quarters.
4
Shobhaben: Her Workplace
Shobhaben works at Lal Darwaja Market, a famous and dense market partially covered by plastic tarps to marginally reduce sun exposure. Still, heavily-trafficked walkways, and direct overhead sun make its exposure to heat intense and constant.
5
Shobhaben: Her Workplace
In the evenings, our observations show a significant difference between the night temperature that the satellite data predicts and the temperature that is sensed.
6
Shobhaben: Her Experience
The interior of Shobhaben's home does not cool down relative to the exterior roof. Nighttime temperatures indoors are consistently several degrees higher than the satellite data suggests.
7
Madhuben: A Home-Based Weaver
Madhuben is a weaver who commutes between her home and workplace. Her home sits in a dense settlement surrounded by agricultural fields. Some roofs in the neighborhood have been painted with reflective paint, while others have not. Most homes are made from concrete or brick, and are connected by impervious surfaces.
8
Madhuben: Her Home
Madhuben lives in a two-room, concrete home with windows and doors for ventilation.
9
Madhuben: Her Workplace
Her workplace is just a 10-minute walk away from her home. The workplace is a one-story, blue-painted home with brick/mud walls. The rooms are full of weaving equipment and materials.
10
Madhuben: Her Experience
Temperatures at the workplace are at times significantly increased above temperatures in the home during peak working hours. However, the workplace has superior ventilation.
11
Mehulbhai: Comparing Two Homes
In Amraiwadi, we compared two homes: Mehulbhai's home, which uses a standard roof, and a nearby home made with a "cool roof."
12
Mehulbhai: A Concrete Roof
Mehulbhai's home is in a typical unpainted three-story concrete structure outfitted with a standard concrete roof. His home on the third floor was also poorly ventilated.
13
Mehulbhai: A Cool Roof
The “cool roof house,” features heat-reflective paint on the top of the roof. It is a one-story concrete structure with no windows, an entry room, a bedroom, and a kitchen. This home also had minimal ventilation.
14
Mehulbhai: Two Roofs as Experienced
We found that the "cool roof" was ineffective at lowering the sensed temperature compared to the standard concrete roof. Inferior ventilation means the structure with a reflective-painted roof is generally warmer than its concrete roof counterpart.
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