Urbanisation led to 60% more night-time warming in Indian cities than non-urban areas: Study
night-time warming in over 140 prominent Indian cities compared to non-urban areas surrounding them, a new research from the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar has found. According to the research, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Rajkot had the highest urban effect, while Delhi-NCR and Pune were found to be at the fourth and fifth position, respectively.
Urbanisation is known to be responsible for the urban heat island (UHI) effect, in which the concrete and asphalt (used in constructing roads and pavements) surfaces store heat during the day and release it in the evening, thereby raising night-time temperatures.
Over time, this heat further affects other aspects of climate, including rainfall and pollution, researchers said in the study published in the journal Nature Cities.
The study sought to determine how much urbanisation and local climate change each contributed to raising night-time temperatures over the past two decades (2003-2020).
«The mean urban effect for all these cities across India was found to be 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. This leads to an estimate of 37.73 per cent of the total urban warming being linked to urbanisation — that is, nearly 60 per cent enhancement of warming relative to the surrounding non-urban areas,» the authors wrote.
They also found that cities in the northwestern, northeastern and southern regions showed a «more pronounced increase» in night-time temperatures than in the other parts of the country.
However, the contribution of urbanisation towards night-time warming was
