Assessing the Spatial Mapping of Heat Vulnerability under Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effect in the Dhaka Metropolitan Area

The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon gets intensified in the process of urbanization, which increases the vulnerability of urban dwellers to heatwaves. The UHI-induced vulnerability to heatwaves has increased in Bangladesh during past decades. Thus, this study aims to examine the UHI and vulnerability to heatwaves in the city of Dhaka using a heat vulnerability index (HVI). The HVI is constructed using various demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental risk variables at thana level. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the 26 normalized variables for each of the 41 thanas of Dhaka to prepare the HVI. Result shows that more than 60% of the city is under built-up areas, while vegetation cover and water bodies are in low proportion. Analysis of…