While in this year almost all regions in the world have been experiencing unprecedented heat waves, just a few days back, researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar, have published a paper that reveals – urbanization alone has caused up to 60% additional warming in Indian cities, with significant variability among different cities.

The study titled “Urbanization and regional climate change-linked warming of Indian Cities” has been published in the journal “Nature Cities.” It is the first-of-its-kind of study, in the sense – it has provided insight by carefully separating regional climate change and urbanization in multiple cities.

In the context of rising temperature, the study has investigated the contributions of local-scale urbanization and regional climate change to the observed surface warming in 141 major Indian cities over the past two decades. By leveraging 18 years of high-resolution land surface temperature data from the MODIS sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite for the period between 2003 and 2020, the research team has carefully compared urban and rural warming trends. Applying strict quality control measures, they have subtracted the regional climate change effects observed in rural areas from the urban warming to isolate the urbanization effect.

An important observation

One very significant aspect of the study is – Tier II cities in Eastern India have shown stronger urbanization-driven warming compared to larger metro cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. This disparity indicates the importance of targeted urban planning and efforts to mitigate heat impacts, which could also address other urban issues like extreme rainfall, floods, and air pollution. Targeting smaller cities with systematic heat action plan is expected to be far cheaper with positive outcome than for large urban agglomerations or megacities. The study emphasizes the urgent need for detailed urban climate studies and data generation as Indian cities rapidly expand.

More exploration needed

The research was led by Dr. V. Vinoj, Associate Professor, School of Earth, Ocean & Climate Sciences and Soumya Satyakanta Sethi. Hinting towards the possible solution, Dr. Vinoj said, “A lot more aspects related to urbanization are still unexplored in the Indian context. However, this study provides an early glimpse of science-backed information that may be useful for national or state level policy making to view each city differently and allocate limited resources systematically to reduce warming of our cities. Such an approach will help in implementing policies that may make our growing smart cities, smarter.”

More awareness required at ground level

Although there is no doubt that this study will be of great use to our urban planners, the challenge is how much importance each and every state do attach to the issue. Solution to this vital climate issue needs much more awareness, and not only that at the high level but also at the ground level. To be more specific, a few years back, the pollution level at Delhi reached record high level, then steps were taken to reduce stubble burning at the neighbouring states.

Till the third quarter of 2023, the Central Government had released funds to the tune of (about) Rs. 3,333 crores under the Crop Residue Management Scheme, to the State Government of Punjab, NCR States and GNCT of Delhi for subsidized procurement of machines to individual farmers or custom hiring centres and cooperatives to facilitate in-situ management of paddy straw as also for baling or raking machines and equipment to facilitate ex-situ applications.

It is nice to note the improvement that shows: from 15th September to 29th October, 2023, the total stubble burning incidents in Haryana, Punjab, NCR – UP, NCR- Rajasthan and Delhi had come down from 13,964 and 11,461 in the corresponding periods in 2022 and 2021 to 6,391 (in 2023). That means a reduction of 54.2 % & 44.3 % respectively.

Then what happened on 29th October itself? According to the reports, the detected incidents of stubble burning in Punjab on 29th October alone was 1,068.

What happened thereafter? According to the reports, the State Governments of Punjab and Haryana had therefore been advised by the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) to mobilize the entire state administrative machinery to take all preventive and corrective measures for control of stubble burning as per the framework and action plans, for further focused attention to ensure that the gains achieved are not lost and the momentum is maintained in the coming days.

More coordinated approach required

There is a need for coordinated approach – an approach that is understood and whole-heartedly accepted by all stakeholders. Literally, that is hardly happening anywhere in the world.

The governments are talking about stopping stubble burning at a few places – and procuring funds to strengthen alternative arrangements. Have you noticed in our metros – like Mumbai, Chennai etc., how is the practice of burning dry or shed leaves increasing? It is not only burning the shed leaves or plant extracts, as everywhere pieces of plastic materials remain mixed with them. As a regular practice at many places, the local corporation’s cleaning staff gathers and heaps up the garbage at a corner of the road and set them on fire. Nobody cares, nobody measures its effect.

A global phenomenon

As per the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system, “Climate change is a global phenomenon that largely impacts urban life. Rising global temperatures causes sea levels to rise, increases the number of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and storms, and increases the spread of tropical diseases. All these have costly impacts on cities’ basic services, infrastructure, housing, human livelihoods and health. At the same time, cities are a key contributor to climate change, as urban activities are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Estimates suggest that urban areas are responsible for 70% of global CO2 emissions, with transport and buildings being among the largest contributors.

Cities are a key contributor to climate change…
Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash

Only with a coordinated approach and action at the global, regional, national and local levels, can success be achieved. It is essential, therefore, to make cities an integral part of the solution in fighting climate change. Many cities are already doing a lot by using renewable energy sources, cleaner production techniques and regulations or incentives to limit industrial emissions. Cutting emissions will also reduce local pollution from industries and transport, thus improving urban air quality and the health of city dwellers.”

In India, on one hand we are encouraging adoption of electric vehicles, on the other hand we are keeping our eyes closed towards conversion of age-old motor bikes into bike vans for rural or semi-urban transportation of passengers and goods.

Age-old motor bike converted into a bike van…
Photo by veeru edits on pexels.com

Conclusion

So, we have good knowledge at administrators’ level, good guidance from them, still poor level of implementation. Why so? The only reason is lack of awareness, which is leading to unwillingness to do or deliver.

Perfect coordination and complete cooperation are required for proper implementation of the plans. Otherwise, ideas will not get translated into actions or will remain halfway through.

By P. K. Chatterjee (PK)

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