Rapid urbanisation and climate change will significantly impact urban populations. A case in point is the rapidly urbanising State of Gujarat in India, where the major cities of Ahmedabad and Surat—the fifth and eighth largest cities in India—have seen a significant rise in population. Their combined populations increased by 69 per cent, from 5.9 to 10.0 million, between 2001 and 2011. Additionally, the region's hot and humid climate causes considerable heat stress during the pre-monsoon months. Various parts of Gujarat have been identified as high-risk areas for the increased frequency of lethal heat stress events due to global warming.
In this scenario, it is imperative to develop novel adaptation strategies to improve the health and well-being of people residing in cities by understanding and mitigating the impacts of hotter climates. This understanding can be achieved by translating broad-scale meteorological observations and climate change projections into localised information about the microclimates that directly impact humans. Additionally, better geospatial data on urban land cover, including building characteristics, three-dimensional urban structures, anthropogenic heat and moisture emissions, and detailed high-resolution information about urban green and blue spaces, are needed.
Shomen Mukherjee, Associate Professor at Ahmedabad University’s School of Arts and Sciences, is conducting a study that will model land cover and temperature data for Ahmedabad and combine this with field data on wildlife collected from urban parks. The study will assess the influences of urban land cover and microclimate on biodiversity (including birds, bats, and insects) and human heat exposure.
Specifically, the research will map local climate zones and urban green and blue spaces using data from multiple remote-sensing sources. It will also map daily and seasonal patterns of urban Land Surface Temperature (LST) by fusing high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution sources of thermal data. The research will generate high-resolution predictions of moist heat stress by integrating the mapping and temperature data with ground measurements using numerical weather modelling and machine learning.
The data gathered from mapping climate zones, green spaces, and temperature predictions of heat stress will be combined with field data collected from urban parks in Ahmedabad to assess the influences of urban land cover and microclimate on biodiversity and human heat exposure.
Professor Mukherjee’s research has received the NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) grant, which he will use to further his study along with his collaborator, Professor Michael Wimberly from the University of Oklahoma.