Ahmedabad: On Monday, the third day of June, the city’s maximum temperature finally slid below 40 degrees celsius, a rare dip in a year with a high number of days recording temperatures of 40 degrees or above.Experts say urban sprawl is one of the chief reasons for the steady rise in temperatures. Seen from the sky, the city looks like a grey blob, with scant vegetation or water.A recent study, ‘Assessing Land-Use Dynamics and Thermal Stress in Ahmedabad Using Integrated Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Techniques’, indicates that about 60% of the city’s area faces moderate to high temperatures. The study says the projections for 2045 suggest a chance of about 300 sq km of the city being built-up area.The study was authored by Rupesh Kumar Gupta, Yash Kumar Tiwari, Arpit Gupta, Grinedge Yadav, and Swati Gupta. It was published in Advances in Environmental and Engineering Research journal.Several earlier studies also underlined the importance of green and blue infrastructure for balanced urban development. A study by Pir Mohammad, Ajanta Goswami, Sarthan Chauhan and Shailesh Nayak indicated a chance of land surface temperature (LST) exceeding 40 degrees in about 24 sq km of the city by 2030. The study was published in Elsevier journal Urban Climate.Another study by Aneesh Mathew, Sumit Khandelwal, and Nivedita Kaul also highlighted close links between LST and the city’s built-up areas.“The city is one of the most studied as far as heat impact is concerned, due to its pioneering heat action plan and efforts to mitigate heat,” said a city-based urban planner. “ The efforts ranged from cool roofs to the use of sprinklers in public places.”While multiple efforts have been made to improve green cover, the planner said, the need of the hour is town-planning-level or city-level initiatives to balance built-up areas with green and blue infrastructure.
