REAL-TIME ISOHUME MAPPING FOR COOL AND WARM HUMIDITY ISLES OF BENGALURU CITY

Rajesh Gopinath,S Neha,Ajay Singh,Harendra Prasad,S Sachin

doi:10.15551/pesd2020141021

Abstract

A naturally gifted city, the development of Urban Moisture Islands (UMI) in Bengaluru is disheartening owing to its rampant-unplanned urbanization to satisfy its rapidly prevalent population. The subsequent increase in built-up area, consequent loss of productive agricultural lands/green zones, encroachment of surface water bodies coupled with the ill-preparedness of decision makers to handle the expansion have invariably impacted the micro-climate of the city. In this present research, an attempt has been made to detect the development of Urban Moisture Islands in Bengaluru by conducting real-time survey at 100 observatories marked across the entire urban locations; with thermo-hygrometers as per the W.M.O. guidelines. The study confirmed the violation of the Human Thermal Comfort Range in 61, 3, 36, 62, 32 and 14 stations during the monitoring for 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM, 6 PM and 9 PM respectively. The major causative factors for this drastic climatic transformation from the once sobriquet climate is due to the elevated greenhouse gas emissions, gradual loss of green cover, steady replacement of natural surfaces with materials that have higher thermal properties.

Highlights

Prevalent urbanization and rampant industrialization have resulted in the modification of local city climate; essentially altering the local humidity profile to produce drier environs, often referred to as the "Urban Moisture Islands" (UMI)
For stations with sufficient heat sinks, the maximum Relative Humidity values were usually observed at 6 AM, and the Minimum Relative Humidity ones were recorded around 3 PM
The major focus of this research was to identify the Urban Moisture Islands created in Bengaluru town area and to understand the major factors contributing to these humidity differences

Summary

Introduction

Prevalent urbanization and rampant industrialization have resulted in the modification of local city climate; essentially altering the local humidity profile to produce drier environs, often referred to as the "Urban Moisture Islands" (UMI). Its intensity is identified to be the differences between rural and urban humidity (Kuttler Wilhelm, 2007). The contributor influencing this distribution is mainly due to loss of the natural heat sinks inherent to the topography. The city of Bengaluru has been victim of rampant urbanization and this growth has resulted in the deterioration of environmental conditions; as industrialization, population growth and urbanization have reinforced each other (Rajesh Gopinath et al, 2017). This directly determines the loss of more heat sinks and sources of evaporative surfaces. The ability to manage the Urban Humidity Islands and to simultaneously preserve the natural environment is a matter of key concern

Methods

Results

Conclusion