Urbanization Boosts Night-Time Warming in Indian Cities: Study

May 29, 2024

A new study from the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar shows that more people living in cities is making the nights much warmer in over 140 major Indian cities. The study that compared these urban areas to their non-urban peers found that temperatures rose 60% more at night in cities. This was mostly because of the urban heat island (UHI) effect. The temperature rose the most in important cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Rajkot. Other cities, like Delhi-NCR and Pune, also saw big changes.

Understanding Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effect

The UHI effect happens when buildings in cities, especially those made of concrete and asphalt, soak up and store heat during the day and slowly let it out at night, making the nights warmer. New research shows that this release of heat not only raises the temperature at night, but it also changes the climate overall by changing things like the pattern of rains and the amount of pollution in the area.

Analysis of Urbanisation on Local Climate

The main goal of the study was to look at how urbanization has changed the temperature, especially over the last twenty years (2000–2020). The average rise due to urbanization was about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade, which means that urbanization is responsible for about 37.73 percent of all urban heat. This in-depth study showed that cities warmed up almost twice as fast as the rest of the country.

Differential Regional Impact

The temperature rose more noticeably at night in cities in the northwest, northeast, and south of India. On the other hand, urbanization itself had a bigger effect on the eastern and central parts of the country, which are growing quickly. This variation between regions suggests that urban planning and climate resilience measures should be changed to fit the needs and stage of development of each area.

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