Urbanization, Urban Heat Island Effects and Dengue Outbreak in Delhi

Abstract

The present paper is the outcome of instigated thought by several studies on urbanization and prevalence of vector-borne disease in tropical areas. It is envisaged and hypothesised to find if any correlation exists between urbanization process, heat island generated due to urbanization (e.g. higher density of road network, buildings and traffic) in the urban areas and the outbreak of vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue. The paper primarily looked into the temporal data of all metropolitan cities and found that there is an increased incidence of dengue outbreak in all metropolitan cities. There is a lot of variability in the rainfall in Delhi, but all other metropolitan cities have been experiencing an average rainfall over the past two decades. Review of literature led to the construction of hypothesis that there exists a close association between urbanization and the increased incidence of dengue outbreak. Ordinary least square method is used to find if there is any correlation between the urbanization variables and disease outbreak. Regression result shows that there is high possibility between the urbanization and disease outbreak.