Heat Action Plan
Also called: HAP · Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A Heat Action Plan (HAP) is a plan made by a city or state to warn people about heat waves and protect them during one. It sets out steps such as early heat warnings, drinking-water points, changed work hours and getting hospitals ready. Ahmedabad made the first Heat Action Plan in South Asia in 2013, after a deadly heat wave in 2010. NDMA's guidelines (2016, revised 2019) now guide such plans in states and cities. Heat matters because heat wave is still not on India's list of notified disasters (check the current status). So these plans are the main way to tackle it.
Example
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, started its Heat Action Plan in 2013. Other cities and states later used it as a model for their own plans.
Don't confuse with
- Heat wave: a heat wave is the hazard itself. IMD declares one when the maximum reaches at least 40°C in the plains and is 4.5-6.4°C above normal, or reaches 45°C. A Heat Action Plan is the response to it.
- Urban heat island: this means a city is warmer than the land around it. It makes heat waves worse, and HAPs try to reduce it.