{"id":185144,"date":"2022-05-18T20:55:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T15:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=185144"},"modified":"2022-05-18T20:55:53","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T15:25:53","slug":"explained-what-are-urban-heat-islands-and-why-are-they-worsening-during-summers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/explained-what-are-urban-heat-islands-and-why-are-they-worsening-during-summers\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: What are urban heat islands, and why are they worsening during summers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
What is the News?<\/b><\/h5>\n

Several parts of India are reeling under heatwave conditions. Cities, especially, are a lot hotter than rural areas. This is due to a phenomenon called an \u201curban heat island\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are Urban Heat Islands?<\/b><\/h5>\n

An urban heat island is a local and temporary phenomenon experienced when certain pockets within a city experience a higher heat load than surrounding or neighbouring areas on the same day.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, a greener locality like Pashan in Pune often records cooler temperatures than urban areas like Shivajinagar, Chinchwad or Magarpatta.<\/span><\/p>\n

The variations are mainly due to heat remaining trapped within locations that often resemble concrete jungles<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are cities hotter than rural areas?<\/b><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rural areas are often covered with plants, grass, trees, and crops. Plants take up water from the ground and release it into the air as vapour through a process called transpiration which acts as nature’s air conditioner. Evaporation from water bodies also helps in cooling down these areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the contrary, urban areas lack sufficient green cover or gardens and are often developed with highrise buildings, roads, parking spaces, pavements and transit routes for public transport. As a result, heat regulation is either completely absent or man-made.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do cities absorb more heat?<\/b><\/h5>\n

According to Physics, black or any dark-coloured object absorbs all wavelengths of light and converts them to heat, while white reflects it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cities usually have buildings constructed with glass, bricks, cement and concrete \u2014 all of which are dark-coloured materials, meaning they attract and absorb higher heat content. This forms temporary islands within cities where the heat remains trapped.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How can urban heat islands be reduced?<\/b><\/h5>\n

The main way to cut heat load within urban areas is by increasing the green cover; filling open spaces with trees and plants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other ways of heat mitigation include the appropriate choice of construction materials, promoting terrace and kitchen gardens, and painting white or light colours on terraces wherever possible to reflect heat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: <\/b>The post is based on the article<\/span> \u201cExplained: What are urban heat islands, and why are they worsening during summers?\u201d<\/b> published<\/span> in<\/span> Indian Express<\/b> on <\/span>18th May 2022.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the News? Several parts of India are reeling under heatwave conditions. Cities, especially, are a lot hotter than rural areas. This is due to a phenomenon called an \u201curban heat island\u201d. What are Urban Heat Islands? An urban heat island is a local and temporary phenomenon experienced when certain pockets within a city… Continue reading Explained: What are urban heat islands, and why are they worsening during summers?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,9],"tags":[10500],"class_list":["post-185144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-public","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}