Nature-based ecologies of cooling: place-based pathways to advancing heat resilience in an informal settlement of Chennai (India)

Urban heat is transforming as a major disaster and challenge to urban planners and policy makers. The impacts of urban heat are disproportionate and much severe amongst marginalized communities. Nature-based traditional ecological knowledge has become a vital heat adaptive mechanism for such communities. This study offers distinctive contribution, by reframing nature-based traditional ecological solutions for advancing urban heat resilience through the lens of informal settlements, a context that is largely overlooked in mainstream climate adaptation research and policy. Unlike existing studies that focus on techno-centric heat mitigation measures, this research acknowledges local geographies concerns. Accordingly, this study uncovers embedded, culturally rooted, and community-driven strategies that have evolved organically within marginalized neighbourhoods of Chennai as a tool for addressing urban heat resilience. As such this study equips stakeholders with a replicable framework for designing context-sensitive, gender-responsive, and community-driven interventions that can be mainstreamed into urban heat governance across India to advance heat resilience.