In 2023 and 2024, Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand and Vietnam, faced an unprecedented heatwave, an issue that is set to worsen due to climate change. Heat is increasingly a pressing problem in cities, as the urban heat island (UHI) effect amplifies the impacts of rising temperatures. Research indicates that blue and green urban infrastructure solutions can lower temperatures, improving human thermal comfort and reducing heat stress. However, in the Mekong Region there's a scarcity of analyses at the city and sub-city scale to gauge the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of such interventions for long-term climate adaptation.

The Mekong Thought Leadership and Think Tanks Network Program (Program) supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Government of Australia, has the overall ambition to work together with national, and regional knowledge-based policy influence organisations (KBPIOs). This includes supporting think tanks, to enhance their effectiveness and inclusiveness in policy engagement. As part of this initiative ADPC (Thailand) in collaboration with Alluvium (Australia), Thailand Environment Institute, RMIT University (Vietnam) and B-Kode (Belgium) has initiated a unique project on “Urban Heat Resilience: Bridging Science, Policy, and Sustainable Design”. The project is being implemented with selected communities in Bangkok and the learnings shared with selected second tier cities of Vietnam.

Our focus is on enhancing the city's resilience by identifying vulnerable areas, optimizing urban design, and identifying targeted cooling strategies.