Chennai's Heat Wave: How Urban Changes Warm Up the City

Urbanization brings people together, but it also heats up cities. This is known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, where the heart of the city is much warmer than the outskirts. While many studies focus on big cities as a whole, this one zeros in on the hottest spots within Chennai, India. Researchers looked at how changes in land use and cover (LULC) from 1988 to 2023 have affected these hot zones. They used satellite images from Landsat 5 and 8 to see how areas like the Pallikaranai marshland turning into the Perungudi dumping ground (PDG), and green spaces becoming the Kodungaiyur dumping ground (KDG), have cranked up the heat.

These zones got hotter by about 0. 21°C and 0. 15°C each year, respectively. The heat spike can be felt up to 450 meters from PDG and 550 meters from KDG. This means people living nearby are likely feeling the burn. To cool things down, planners need to tackle these hotspots. The method used in Chennai can help other cities worldwide plan better and beat the urban heat.

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