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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Not smart cities, India needs climate-smart cities to protect its urban poor from heat waves -Sahana Ghosh & Mayank Aggarwal

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Even at night, people living in densely-built, low-income urban neighbourhoods get no respite.

As India stares at one of the longest heatwaves in three decades – which so far has claimed over 200 lives – experts warn that the scorcher will impact people in poor urban neighbourhoods for weeks after even after it is over.

In a study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment in April, researchers mapped and compared exposure to heat between low-income and other neighbourhoods in Delhi, Dhaka and Faisalabad.

While high and low-income neighbourhoods both have heat going up during the day, one’s ability to afford air conditioning, avoid strenuous activities outdoors and the presence of shade make a difference in coping with the heat exposure, said co-author Christian Siderius of the Wageningen University and Research.

But people in densely built, low-income neighbourhoods, with no open green spaces, remain unsheltered from heat even at night. Because, at night, these neighbourhoods, tend to trap the heat of the day and stay warmer.

“And due to a combination of factors when the heatwave is over, poor people will be exposed to extremely high night-time temperatures for many more weeks or even months,” said Siderius, adding that this creates an ongoing health risk.

Instead of just tracking urban heat islands or air temperature, researchers assessed the exposure to heat in outdoor microclimatic conditions in terms of thermal indices. They advocated that heat action plans be based on thermal indices so as to include factors such as humidity, not just temperature thresholds.

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