Measuring community heatwave resilience: A comprehensive framework and tool

This article presents the first comprehensive, multi-sector heatwave resilience measurement framework and associated tool, available for use at the community or city neighbourhood scale. The question of how to live in a rapidly urbanising, climate change impacted world with more frequent and intense heatwaves is more urgent than ever. Most cities and communities around the world are critically underprepared for the growing reality of heatwaves. This paper presents the system of systems that come together to generate heatwave risk and action in which can, in-turn, support community-level heatwave resilience: features of urban heatwave risk, heatwave vulnerabilities, and heatwave governance. We then present the heatwave version of the Climate Resilience Measurement for Communities: a systems-based approach for conceptualising and measuring disaster resilience. The framework was co-designed by researchers and practitioners and is based on the most widely applied community flood resilience measurement endeavor in the world. This is, to our knowledge, the only standardized and holistic, yet globally applicable, heatwave resilience measurement framework available.