Ahmedabad ranked world’s least climate-resilient major city in AlphaGeo study

A new study by geospatial AI firm AlphaGeo has identified Ahmedabad, India, as the world’s least climate-resilient major city. The report, titled ‘How Climate Resilient Are the World’s Largest Cities?’, evaluated 72 major urban centers using a proprietary Climate Risk & Resilience Index (CRRI).

The index measures the gap between physical exposure to hazards—such as extreme heat, flooding, and drought—and a city’s capacity to adapt. Ahmedabad received the highest residual risk score, driven largely by extreme heat exposure. The study notes that while the city implemented South Asia’s first heat action plan in 2010, current resilience levels remain insufficient relative to the scale of physical risk.

South Asian cities dominated the bottom of the rankings, highlighting a ‘compounding crisis’ where high physical exposure meets moderate adaptation performance. In Pakistan, five cities—Hyderabad, Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad, and Karachi—ranked among the world’s ten least resilient. Other cities appearing in the bottom tier include Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh, Kolkata in India, and Taipei in Taiwan. Conversely, Chicago was ranked as the world’s most resilient major city.