Impact of Urban Heat Island: A Local-Level Urban Climate Phenomenon on Urban Ecology and Human Health

With the rapid rate of urbanization in the last few decades, tremendous changes in the land use and land cover pattern of urban areas have occurred. These include the conversion of pervious surfaces to impervious surfaces, a decrease in the open and green spaces, and decreased sky-view factor that has led to the formation of Urban Heat Islands. These urban heat islands have implications for urban climate as it leads to elevated temperatures in the city centers and lower temperatures on the outskirts of urban areas. This further leads to increased energy consumption in cities besides having adverse effects on human health that get manifested in the form of distress as well as stroke due to high intensity of heat, fatigue, sapping of energy, irritation, and suicidal tendencies. With the ever-increasing size of urban areas by means of urban sprawl due to a greater influx of people from rural to urban areas in search of better amenities and opportunities, the problem of urban heat islands is bound to exacerbate in the coming years. Therefore, the present paper aims at critically assessing the spatio-temporal domain of Urban Heat Island in relation to urban ecology and human health using geospatial technology. A case study of Bathinda city has been described to assess the Impervious Surfaces and their impacts on Land Surface Temperature in Bathinda City of Punjab. Further, an attempt would be made to study the adaptation and mitigation measures for urban heat islands.