ISLAMABAD: Five Pakistani cities — Hyderabad, Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi — have been placed among the world’s 10 least resilient major cities to climate-related risks in a new international assessment.
The study by geospatial analytics company AlphaGeo examined 72 major cities and compared their physical exposure to climate hazards with their ability to adapt. Hyderabad was ranked the second least resilient city, followed by Multan in third place, Lahore fifth, Faisalabad seventh and Karachi eighth. India’s Ahmedabad topped the ranking.
The report identified extreme heat as a particularly important factor across South Asia. Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Multan, Dhaka, Kolkata and Lahore were the six highest-risk major cities in the assessment, with relatively limited adaptation compared with the scale of their physical exposure.
AlphaGeo said high residual climate-risk scores could affect infrastructure, property values, economic activity and the ability of governments to respond to disasters. Pakistan and Bangladesh were highlighted as countries where rapidly increasing urban climate exposure is outpacing improvements in resilience.