Lok Sabha Question No. 354 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-07-24
Subject: Urban Heat Islands in India
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Kesineni Sivanath

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 354 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 24 TH  JULY, 2024

## URBAN HEAT ISLANDS IN INDIA

## 354.        SHRI KESINENI SIVANATH:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  conducted  any  research/survey/study  on  the  rising issue of Urban Heat Islands in India;
- (b) if so, the details regarding the cities/towns identified to face problems due to Urban Heat Islands phenomena, States-wise, especially in Andhra Pradesh;
- (c) whether the  Government has  put  forward  any  documentation  on  steps  to  reduce this phenomenon;
- (d) if so, the details thereof;
- (e) the steps undertaken by the Government to tackle the issue of Urban Heat Islands phenomena in India;
- (f) the allocation of funds to States especially to Andhra Pradesh to tackle the issue of Urban Heat Islands phenomena;
- (g) whether the Government has carried out any promotional/awareness campaign on Urban Heat Island phonomena; and
- (h) if so, the details thereof along with funding?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes.
- (b) MoES institutions,  including  India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD)  and  other research centers in India, have studied the Urban Heat Island (UHI) in India. One of  the  studies  selected  44  cities  in  India  to  understand  the  urban  heat  island phenomena using satellite-based dataset from 2000 to 2017. Results show that the mean daytime and night-time surface UHI intensity during summer is positive for 21 and 38 cities, respectively.Vijayawada and Vizag cities in Andhra Pradesh are showing  positive  trends  during  both  daytime  and  nighttime.  The  details  are provided in the Annexure-1.
- (c) & (d)  IMD issues early warning advisories for the heatwave conditions for preparedness.
- (e) The India Meteorological Department has taken various steps to improve monitoring  and  early  warning  systems,  which  helped  minimize  loss  of  life  and property  during  extreme  weather  events,  including  heatwaves  due  to  UHI  also. These include:
- i. Issuing  seasonal  and  monthly  outlook  of  temperature  and  heat  wave conditions.
- ii. District-wise heatwave  vulnerability Atlas over India to help State Government  authorities  and  disaster  management  agencies  in  planning and taking appropriate action.
- iii.  The hot weather hazard analysis over India that includes daily temperature, winds, and humidity condition.
- iv. Heat  index  forecast  for  the  entire  country  and  impact-based  forecast  of heatwave conditions at district levels.
- v. Real-time heat wave information and warnings on the Web-GIS platform.
- vi. Heat  Action  Plans  (HAPs)  in  23  States  that  are  prone  to  heatwave conditions  jointly  implemented  by  the  national  disaster  management authority in collaboration with the State Governments.
- vii.  Improvement  of  warning  dissemination  services;  using  modern  tools  of dissemination systems for timely public outreach.
- (f) Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) implements the central sector schemes uniformly throughout the country and hence the allocation of funds is not State-wise. Funds are not directly released to the State Governments from MoES for the implementation of the central sector schemes.
- (g) Yes.
- (h) National  Disaster  Management  Authority  (NDMA)  also  organizes  annual  national workshop  with  all  heat  prone  states,  concerned  departments  and  ministries  of Government  of  India,  knowledge  partners  and  other  stakeholders  for  reviewing preparedness of the states for heat wave management and mitigation before the start of  heatwave.  During  the  heatwaves  season,  NDMA  also  schedule  the  fortnightly review  meetings  with  the  States,  IMD,  and  issue  necessary  advisories  as  per  the prevailing heatwave situation.

NDMA also  runs  awareness  generation  campaign  on  heatwave  from  time  to  time, through electronic including social media to inform, educate and making the public aware about preparedness, precautions and safeguard during the season of heatwave.

## Daytime  and  night-time  surface  urban  heat  island  intensity  trend  (°C/decade)  in  44 Indian cities from 2000 to 2017:

|   S. No. | City       |    Day |   Night |
|----------|------------|--------|---------|
|        1 | Agra       | -0.278 |   0.054 |
|        2 | Ahmedabad  | -0.124 |   0.17  |
|        3 | Allahabad  | -0.114 |   0.108 |
|        4 | Amritsar   | -0.368 |   0.019 |
|        5 | Aurangabad | -0.176 |   0.188 |
|        6 | Bangalore  | -0.239 |   0.117 |
|        7 | Baroda     |  0.261 |   0.226 |
|        8 | Bhopal     | -0.033 |   0.196 |
|        9 | Chandigarh | -0.343 |   0.014 |
|       10 | Chennai    |  0.044 |   0.065 |
|       11 | Coimbatore |  0.124 |   0.087 |
|       12 | Delhi      | -0.313 |   0.075 |
|       13 | Dhanbad    |  0.019 |   0.047 |
|       14 | Guwahati   |  0.106 |   0.245 |
|       15 | Gwalior    |  0.175 |   0.181 |
|       16 | Hyderabad  | -0.175 |   0.238 |
|       17 | Indore     |  0.058 |   0.191 |
|       18 | Jabalpur   |  0.372 |   0.328 |
|       19 | Jaipur     | -0.393 |   0.015 |
|       20 | Jodhpur    |  0.093 |  -0.182 |
|       21 | Kanpur     | -0.088 |   0.116 |
|       22 | Kolkata    | -0.03  |   0.165 |
|       23 | Kota       | -0.225 |  -0.069 |
|       24 | Lucknow    |  0.007 |  -0.04  |
|       25 | Ludhiana   | -0.376 |  -0.026 |
|       26 | Madhurai   | -0.21  |   0.04  |
|       27 | Meerut     | -0.022 |   0.059 |
|       28 | Mumbai     | -0.083 |   0.093 |
|       29 | Nagpur     | -0.202 |   0.109 |
|       30 | Nashik     | -0.312 |   0.27  |
|       31 | Patna      |  0.3   |   0.279 |
|       32 | Pune       |  0.025 |   0.019 |
|       33 | Raipur     |  0.059 |   0.116 |
|       34 | Rajkot     | -0.214 |   0.145 |
|       35 | Ranchi     | -0.097 |   0.181 |
|       36 | Srinagar   |  0.345 |  -0.158 |
|       37 | Surat      |  0.008 |   0.082 |
|       38 | Tata       |  0.156 |   0.222 |
|       39 | Thrissur   |  0.182 |   0.101 |
|       40 | Trichy     | -0.351 |  -0.025 |
|       41 | Trivandrum |  0.427 |   0.057 |
|       42 | Varanasi   |  0.01  |   0.237 |
|       43 | Vijayawada |  0.174 |   0.219 |
|       44 | Vizag      |  0.227 |   0.053 |

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