SDG 13: IIT Delhi conducting a study to contextualise heat stress thresholds for India

Climate Action has been identified as SDG 13 for Global Goals 2030. The heat stress is expected to increase due to global warming which is serious concern for researcher across the world.

As the soaring temperature caused by global warming is taking a toll on health, IIT Delhi researchers are conducting a study to develop India-specific heat stress tolerance thresholds to formulate a plan for heat management. The study is part of a project 'Heat Stress Index for India: projection for near future (HIIPROF)' undertaken by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi's Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS), in partnership with five other institutes of India.

Heat stress is the stress felt by our body when exposed to heat in the summer. The project will help in formulating a better and efficient heat management plan across the country. "Heat stress condition is an environmental condition when the body starts feeling stressed out of its normal ability to balance the body temperature. The ability to exchange heat with the surrounding depends not only on temperature but also on humidity, wind, and types of clothing, activity, and physical structure," said Sagnik Dey from CAS, IIT Delhi who is the principal investigator of the project. Dey further informed, "Under searing heat human body struggles and beyond a threshold stress condition, the affected person cannot tolerate any more and suffers from heat stroke. Since India has diverse climatic conditions, it is important to define the thresholds of stress in different parts of the country. This will help the government to formulate appropriate heat management plan, especially when heat condition is expected to worsen in India due to global warming. Even if heat stroke is avoided, the stress can cause issues like headache, cell damage, renal failure, fatigue, neurological problems, kidney stones".

The study funded by the Department of Science and Technology under 'Climate Change and Human Health Programme' is a population-based survey through which the Centre is collecting data about the people's perception of heat exposure along with direct measurement of stress condition and thermal imaging of human physiology under heat stress. The survey is seeking people's response to questions like at what time of the day they felt maximum discomfort, nature of the day whether it was dry and hot or humid, what kind of activity they undertook on a particular day.