2022 Heat Vulnerability Index for the Greater Sydney Region

Brief description

The 2022 Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) for Greater Sydney aims to combine information on urban heat, built form and population demographics to provide a fine-grained understanding of the spatial distribution of heat vulnerable populations.

The Index combines indicators of heat exposure, sensitivity to heat, and adaptive capacity to produce the composite vulnerability index. The 2022 HVI dataset is built upon the methodology established in the creation of the 2016 Sydney HVI dataset (Sun et al 2018), integrating land cover, urban heat, and demographic data, aggregated to Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Broad comparisons can be made between the 2022 and 2016 HVI datasets, however there are multiple factors that may limit direct comparability over time. This includes variations in underlying datasets, the relative nature of the HVI, and the change in size of the study area between 2016 and 2022. When undertaking comparison it is recommended to examine the changes in the underlying datasets and the absolute values of the heat exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity indicators. This approach helps to explain the variations in HVI and informs effective heat mitigation strategies.

The 2022 HVI is most useful at the SA1 scale. It is not recommended to aggregate the HVI dataset to larger scales (i.e. average HVI for a suburb or LGA). Aggregating spatially specific and individual data to geographic areas smooths out local variation, losing locational specificity and population variation. In cases where individual human exposure is of concern, this may either increase or decrease the representation of the actual exposure of a given individual, causing the neighbourhood effect averaging problem (NEAP) (Kwan 2018).

Please refer to the methodology report for more information. Please note that the methodology report was updated in October 2025, adjusting the adaptive capacity SEIFA IER parameter label.