Rising temperatures, rising vulnerabilities: Individual and community adaptation to heat stress in urban slums of Bangladesh

Abstract

Rising temperatures and intensifying heat stress disproportionately affect low-income urban communities, exacerbating existing inequalities and vulnerabilities amid accelerating climate risks. Slum residents, facing unplanned housing structures and limited access to essential services like water, electricity, and gas, adopt individual and community-driven adaptation strategies to cope with extreme heat. However, the conditions that shape their ability to adapt remain largely underexplored. Employing the Everyone’s Adaptation framework, this study examines the key conditions that shape individual and community-level responses to heat stress. Data were collected through a qualitative mixed-methods approach, employing focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, expert interviews, and field observations conducted between June and August 2024 in Korail slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Findings indicate that individual resources, such as income, are pivotal to adaptation, while social capital supports community resilience through resource sharing and access to key facilities and services. However, persistent inequalities in resource distribution exacerbate individual vulnerabilities, intensifying the local impacts of global climate change. Participants emphasize the need for long-term adaptation strategies, such as improved housing conditions, over temporary interventions like cooling centers. The findings highlight the necessity of gender-specific and age-sensitive measures, as women face heightened challenges due to the dual responsibilities of household management and paid work and older adults face mobility challenges to access shaded spaces. By analyzing eight conditions across individual, community, and collective levels, this study advances understanding of everyday adaptation practice to heat stress and contributes to more equitable, context-specific adaptation policies that enhance urban resilience and address climate-related vulnerabilities.