KUL senior research associate gives lecture at prestigious 7th Gobeshona International Conference

Adam Abdullah, Senior Research Associate at the Karachi Urban Lab (KUL), was invited to speak at the distinguished 7th Gobeshona International Conference, where he presented at the session titled, 'Climate Adaptive Heat Stress Management in South Asia'.

The theme for the conference was 'Research into action on locally led adaptation' and was organized by the 'International Centre for Climate Change & Development'. Gobeshona, which is a climate change knowledge network for Bangladesh, brings together distinguished scholars, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from across the world to share their knowledge, research, and practical experiences on climate change issues.

The session was hosted jointly by the Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), India and the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Adam presented on heat management practices of low-income and off-grid populations during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data was drawn from a GeoPoll survey conducted during June and July 2020 in four cities across the global south as part of the three-year 'Cool infrastructures project' at KUL, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, the Ludwig Maximilians University, IIT-Hyderabad and NTU Singapore. The data analysis included crosstabulations of various vulnerability indicators and speculated on some tentative insights drawn from the survey data. The 3-year project is funded by the UK government's Global Challenges Research Fund and is a 1.8 million Sterling grant that brings together 10 academic partners from multidisciplinary backgrounds, representing 9 institutions.

At the session, Adam also got the chance to interact with individuals and organizations working in India on heat management and heat-related policymaking. The session acknowledged the need to focus on chronic exposure to heat and not just heat waves as discrete risk events.

Prof Jyoti K Parikh, Executive Director, IRADe chaired the session. Other speakers included Scientist, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Dr. Subhash Chander Bhan, who spoke on early warning systems in place in India, former Director General, IMD, Prof. Ajit Tyagi, who spoke on heat impacts/stress management in South Asia along with the increase in heatwave over time and Dr. Vijendra Ingole, who presented interesting meta-analyses of the relationship between ambient temperature/heat waves and mortalities in the South Asian context. The proceedings of the session can be accessed online here.