The prototype translates real time environmental data into a public heat tolerance scale, displaying risk levels, remaining safe working hours, and local response contacts so that people can adjust daily routines and seek support during periods of extreme heat.

It gestures toward a future where heat is governed as shared civic infrastructure, with clear lines of responsibility and access, enabling residents, workers, and institutions to respond collectively rather than endure heat in isolation.

Heat is assigned a new medical number making it a heat index so that informed actions can be taken like behavioural change, times of the day that can be spent out of the house, and when people can work and not work.

It offers predictive ways in which people will be aware of the temperature, i.e. whether it is going to be extremely hot over summers or not. This also offers individual ownership and governance based on heat in some ways.

Actionable Heat Index responds to a future where urban heat exposure is increasingly shaped by geography, governance, and inequality. As land values rise in central Bengaluru, low income families are pushed to peripheral wards with higher land surface temperatures and little tree cover, trading affordability for constant heat exposure. These patterns mirror older caste and class geographies, where shade, airflow, and thermal safety are unevenly distributed across the city.

At the same time, heat governance remains fragmented. Bengaluru’s climate action plans largely frame heat as a health issue, leaving housing, labour, mobility, and ecology disconnected. Overlapping departmental mandates produce data without coordination, limiting the city’s ability to respond at scale. The prototype works with these signals of spatial inequality and institutional fragmentation, proposing a future where heat is made visible, comparable, and governable across wards, enabling more coordinated and accountable urban responses.

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Actionable Heat Index operates as a layered public information system that functions at both street and personal scales.

Ward level billboards display a real time heat tolerance score based on local sensor data. The score is colour coded to indicate safe, restricted, or unsafe conditions, and includes a countdown showing remaining permissible working hours for the day. When heat thresholds are crossed, the system signals reduced or suspended work periods, shifting labour to cooler days rather than pushing bodies beyond safe limits.

Each billboard is linked to designated government contacts and emergency response services. When heat stress reaches critical levels, residents can directly call assigned ward representatives or the Bengaluru Heat Response Unit for assistance, making responsibility and response visible and accessible.

A complementary mobile platform mirrors this information for those with digital access. Heat levels, health guidance, and SOS functions are displayed by zone, allowing users to adjust movement and daily routines. Calendar integration flags high heat days in advance, supporting work and travel planning, while map features highlight cooler neighbourhoods, high risk zones, and evacuation routes during extreme conditions.