Creating a balance

We are all aware that, as climate change effects intensify during the course of the century, we will be witnessing more abnormal trends around us. New surprises will greet us more frequently than ever before, and our understanding of natural occurrences may go through serious changes. There may be a makeover in their pattern, defying conventional wisdom.

The conventional wisdom says: we should expect storms, particularly during the rainy season. But this year, they have happened quite frequently (immediately after winter), especially in densely populated urban pockets. And this trend has been witnessed not only in India but in many other places in the world, too. That’s why it has grabbed the attention of metrological scientists worldwide, who are now classifying it as the formation of urban heat islands (UHIs) – a new offshoot of climate change.

It may be early hours, but UHIs have become a subject of examination this year. And the preliminary views clearly earmark that it is being created in the densely populated pockets emitting excessive carbon footprint. The multi-storeyed structures in our metros and buzzing Tier I and II locations and elsewhere are the reason behind this, as they host thousands of families in a vertical format within a limited space. This is how they create frequent storms. As the heat produced in the cluster is not absorbed adequately (lack of green vegetation in the surrounding area is a key reason), these islands or clusters lead to the superheating of the air above a city, creating thermal currents in the sky. When this moisture-rich air rises to cool in the upper atmosphere, it turns into rain and thunderclouds and ultimately expresses itself through thunderstorms.

These urban heat islands normally have above-average temperature conditions compared to the rest of the city (with more vegetation), and there are other elements which contribute to their formation. As the hub for construction, these islands are full of materials like concrete, asphalt and also dark rooftops, which capture and absorb heat more efficiently than green locations with lesser population density. This heats the air of the city, and when they rise in the atmosphere to cool, they turn into storms. According to a study by the American Meteorological Society, these islands eventually develop their own ability to create microclimates and, when the temperature begins to soar, the thunderstorms become more frequent. In India, some of the pockets that have begun to be associated with this new climatic trend are: Delhi/NCR (especially Noida and Gurugram), Jaipur, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata. Globally, there are specific pockets in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou (China), which have grabbed this new identity. Even in the US, there are certain pockets in cities like New York and Phoenix, where UHI attributes have been noticed.

This is a new pattern that has emerged, and observers are still grappling with the issue of where to put this abnormality – in the climate change bucket or in the rapid or uncontrollable urbanisation box?  Or a mix of both, resulting from our inability to understand the kind of surprises the climate change phenomenon can throw at us and take pre-emptive measures in our urbanisation plans?  

Let’s be clear. There does not seem to be any country which may claim to have a dedicated policy to deal with a new challenge like UHI. But, in all fairness, many of them have a policy framework to deal with rising temperature issues, and they need to be enforced with more sincerity and determination. UHI is clearly a problem that will become more pronounced in the time to come, shaped by uncontrollable urbanisation. According to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), the urban pockets in the world will be hosting a staggering five billion people (out of the projected 8.5 billion) by the end of the decade. And there is a massive shift in the urbanisation pattern too, as the projected population swelling in the urban landscape is expected to happen more around the megacities (population greater than 10 million). Currently, the world has 33 megacities and, in the next 20 years, this number is projected to cross the half-century mark. Out of this, the current Indian tally is six and more inclusions are expected in the list in the coming years.

The fresh climatic development definitely calls for enforcing the laws meant to create a balance between climate change and urbanisation. The unmindful development by the real estate developers (trying to extract value out of every possible inch, vertically or horizontally), who give a go-by to environmental concerns (depletion of greenery), must be checked without any further delay. And the government agencies need to become more vigilant, or else the moment would be lost to control it when it is possible.