Patna: The historic city of Patna, which has witnessed very fast urbanisation in the past few decades, is likely to face extreme weather conditions with more “hotter” days and less “colder” days in future, according to a recent study published in ‘International journal of Theoretical and Applied Climatology’.A team of scientists, headed by Central University of South Bihar’s environmental science department head Pradhan Parth Sarthi, has found that as per the current status of urbanisation, Patna — which is also being developed as a smart city — is facing several climatic challenges, including urban heat islands and flooding, caused by extreme weather conditions. The study indicates that in future, during the period of 2030-65, under the existing global warming scenario, the city may get a significant increasing trend in number of days with temperatures greater than 40ºC and also a considerable increase in the percentage of days with the daily maximum temperature above normal. Similarly, there could be a deceasing trend in the number of days with a minimum temperature less than 10ºC. Such possible changes in extreme temperature indices may have a significant impact on urban climate. Furthermore, it could also impact public health by increasing the incidence of heat-related illnesses such as heat stress or exhaustion, according to the study.The study observes that urbanisation in the past few decades has been very fast as people in large numbers have migrated from villages or small towns to Patna for a better quality of life and better economic opportunities. The Gangetic plains are home to 40% population of India. Patna is the best example of fast urbanisation, where most of the high-rises are without green spaces and green rooftops, in complete violation of the environmental norms. To overcome these issues, the study said, the Smart Cities Mission was launched by the Prime Minister on June 25, 2015. The main objective of the mission was to promote cities that provide core infrastructure, and clean and sustainable environment, besides giving a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of “smart solutions”. The co-investigator of the study team, Prabhat Kumar, pointed out that the results of the study may be utilised for developing Patna as a smart city. They have done similar analysis for Delhi, Lucknow, Prayagraj and Varanasi, he added.
