Hyderabad: Urban heat effect is at its worst during nights

Hyderabad: A five-day international meet, ‘Counterm-easures to Urban Heat Islands’ was kicked off by municipal development secretary Arvind Kumar at the IIIT-Hyderabad on Monday. The term ‘urban head island’ refers to a metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas due to human activity.

The conference targets scientists, engineers, builders, architects and government officials, who have been called upon to find solutions to relieving excessive heat and air pollution during summers in hot cities. It had earlier been held in Tokyo, Berkeley (California, USA), Venice and Singapore.

Mr Kumar said the conference was extremely relevant to Hyderabad. “The business space occupied in Hyderabad may go up from the current 120 million sq ft to 140 million sq ft in 2025. What that happens, the UHI effect will double,” he said. The senior bureaucrat shared some of the state government’s countermeasure to reduce the heat island effect. “All 33 districts in the state will have a green action plan for all urban local bodies (ULB). Each ULB will also have a nursery, 10 per cent of its budget earmarked for a green budget. Also, the town planning department is taking the necessary measures to fix traffic and infrastructure issues. The state is encouraging the development of integrated townships,” he said.

Explaining the concept, Mr Vishal Garg, head of the Centre of IT in Building Sciences, IIIT-H, and organising chair of the conference, said, “The temperature difference in an urban heat island is usually larger at night.”