Podcast Series on 'Taking SDGs to the Last Mile' in collaboration with Centre for Climate Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE)

Episode 3, Part 2: Health & Heatwaves: How Cities Cope

The sounds of birds chirping early in the morning. Bustling activity & lively chatter on the streets. The cries of children playing at a maidan. And the grim, incessant honking at traffic signals. These evoke memories of a typical Indian city in our minds. But today, these very cities have been silenced by the ravaging pandemic. While the subject of health occupies a large part of our mindspace today, the looming threat of natural disasters such as heat waves deserve closer attention. We crave for a return to normalcy, which is, in other words, hearing those sounds once again that breathes life into our cities. The answer lies in better preparedness, both from a health and disaster response standpoints.

This episode features Mr. Abiyant Tiwari who is an Assistant Professor & Program Manager at the Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management. He is trained as a Master of Public Health with a specialization in Environmental Health Sciences from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Mr. Tiwari is also a member of the National Disaster Management Authority of India’s technical experts’ group that develops national guidelines for heatwave adaptation plans. In this episode, he begins by describing the steps taken to improve the healthcare infrastructure in our cities via digital solutions & surveillance apps. In the latter part of the podcast, Mr. Tiwari shares his experiences from working on Ahmedabad’s heatwave action plan, a critical innovation designed to provide early warning updates on those unforgiving temperature rises.

Shownotes:

1. Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan 2019, C40 Knowledge Hub (quote by Dr. Tejas Shah & other expert interviews)
2. ACSyS (Advanced COVID 19 Syndromic Surveillance System), Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM)
3. Quality of Life in Indian Cities, Handbook of Emerging 21st-Century Cities
4. Chapter 3 — Global Warming of 1.5 ºC - IPCC (section on impact of heatwaves on cities)
5. Paper: Deadly Heat Stress to Become Commonplace Across South Asia Already at 1.5°C of Global Warming, Geophysical Research Letters

Attribution:
The Bridge Project (2021), "Taking SDGs to the Last Mile: Health & Heatwaves: How Cities Cope ", 23 May, 2021, URL: https://www.buzzsprout.com/921337/8570326 

Research Credits:
Prarthana Puthran (Voice-over & Research), Carl Jaison (script)

Music Credits:
Inspired by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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