Surface Urban Heat Island (Suhi) and its Evolution Over a Rapidly Growing Tropical Urban Complex in Eastern India
37 Pages Posted: 21 Mar 2022
Abstract
The surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect is one of the most prominent signatures of urbanization. Though SUHI is a well-reported phenomenon, their spatial extent and temporal evolution in high resolution have become possible only in recent times Here, we explore SUHI over a tropical coastal urban complex, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, a rapidly growing twin city in the Eastern Indian region during the period 2001 to 2020. Our study reveals a clear discernible annual nighttime SUHI for both Bhubaneswar and Cuttack (0.75 ± 0.08 and 1.22 ± 0.07 °C) with a decadal growth rate of 0.18 ± 0.07 and 0.13 ± 0.07 °C/decade, respectively. Surprisingly, the annual daytime SUHI is weakening for Bhubaneswar. Both night and daytime SUHI showed substantial seasonality. An asymmetry in SUHI during the day, night, the season is observed. The diurnal temperature range is seen to be maximum over the peripheral of the cities. A drop of 2 °C in DTR in the last two decades was also observed. Such changes even in tier-2 cities have the potential to modulate local climate and underscore the need for detailed studies in the rapidly growing cities of India to enable disaster resilience, climate proofing and sustainability.
Keywords: Urbanization, UHI, smart city, urban climate, climate change
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