Urbanisation and climate change

The Union MoS for earth sciences on Thursday said in the Rajya Sabha that urbanisation is one of main causes that can influence the changes in temperature pattern within Delhi and form heat islands. Citing the recent article published in Nature, the minister said that the prolonged spell of heat wave experienced during pre-monsoon season 2022 in India were due to “absence of rainfall and convective activities for a long period, absence of western disturbances and the subsidence of warm and dry air in lower and middle tropospheric levels over the North Arabian sea and adjoining south Pakistan and Gujarat.” However, the good news, according to the minister, is that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has started a “forecast demonstration project on heat waves for the hot weather season.” He further informed that the IMD, in collaboration with local health departments, has started ‘heat action plan’ in many parts of the country.

Urbanisation has already become one of the causes of increasing temperature in many cities of the country. According to the UN’s Habitat World Cities-2022 report, India’s urban population is expected to touch 675 million by by 2035. With the increasing number of migrated population from rural areas, Arunachal Pradesh is also facing the impact of climate change in recent years. In addition to the efforts of the state government to build roads and other infrastructures in the rural areas to prevent exodus of rural people, efforts should be made to reduce carbon emission in cities in order to minimise global warming and to preserve forests to save the Earth from the impact of global warming.