Southasiadisasters.net, Issue No. 226 | November 2025
As one of India’s most heat-exposed states, Maharashtra is at the frontline of rising temperatures, urban heat islands, and climate-linked livelihood risks. This special issue documents how the state is responding—through science-based, locally led, and governance-backed cooling solutions across cities, coasts, and rural districts.
The issue features 17 valuable contributions from practitioners, researchers, and institutions working across Maharashtra’s heat resilience landscape. These include:
- An introduction on “Extreme Heat and Everyday Resilience”, framing 2025 as a turning point for Maharashtra’s heat governance.
- Articles on NDMA–MSDMA collaboration, the Maharashtra State Cooling Action Roadmap, and the state’s modernised SEOC, landslide plan, and mitigation works.
- Evidence and case studies on cool roofs in slums, biomimicry and Wada architecture, ocean-informed coastal cooling, smart ventilation, and cotton farmers’ resilience to extreme heat.
- A focus on partners in cooling – TISS, YASHADA, MSDMA and civil society – showing how institutions, research, and communities are working together to make Maharashtra “heat-ready, heat-resilient, and heat-smart.”
- A “Way Ahead” roadmap outlining five priority actions for a just and inclusive “cooling transition” in Maharashtra.
This issue will be of interest to state and district officials, urban planners, health and DRR practitioners, researchers, and community organisations across India and South Asia who are seeking practical pathways from emergency heat response to long-term, equity-centred cooling.
Resource collections
- ADRRN Knowledge Hub
- ALNAP focus topics
- Climate emergency
- Floods
- Heatwaves
- Learning from crises (Natural hazards)
- Locally led humanitarian action
- UN Habitat - Urban Response Collection
- Urban Response - Urban Crisis Preparedness and Risk Reduction
- Urban Response Collection - Community Engagement and Social Cohesion
- Urban Response Collection - Economic Recovery
- Urban Response Collection - Environment and Climate Change
- Urban Response Collection - Housing, Land and Property
- Urban Response Collection - Urban Crisis Response, Recovery and Reconstruction
- Urban Response Collection - Urban Resilience