The Integrated Heat and Cooling Action Plan (IHCAP) for Bhubaneswar is India’s first city-level framework to address rising heat stress and growing cooling demand in an integrated manner. Developed by iFOREST in collaboration with the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), the IHCAP provides a comprehensive roadmap to tackle increasing temperatures and humidity, the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, and the rapidly rising demand for cooling.
While India has made progress through Heat Action Plans (HAPs) at the city level and the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) at the national level, these efforts have largely remained parallel. By bringing them together, the IHCAP framework bridges critical policy gaps and advances short-term adaptation, long-term mitigation, and sustainable cooling strategies to chart a comprehensive path for climate-resilient urban development.
