Urbanisation

Geography

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Indian Economy - Understanding the basics of Indian economic system

Urbanization: Urban Heat Island

Context: Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened need to make right choices for sustainable urban growth.
Urbanization in India

In 2018, nearly 34% of India’s population lived in the cities. This is expected to increase to 40% by 2030 contributing 75% of the GDP.
Driven by growing urbanization, the real estate sector (the second-largest employer after agriculture) contributed 6-7% of the GDP in 2017. It is expected to increase to 13% by 2025.

Urbanization and the problem of Urban Heat Island

Due to increased urbanization most of the open spaces in urban and semi-urban areas are being used up to create more of paved surface cover, heat-trapping roofs, buildings and roads.
More than 60% of the roofs are made of concrete, metal and asbestos, all of which tend to trap heat. Over time, these hot surfaces lead to formation of urban heat island and thus soaring up temperatures. An urban heat island occurs when a city experiences much warmer temperatures than nearby rural areas.
Urbanization and Electricity Consumption: Buildings account for more than 30% of India’s electricity consumption and a significant share of annual carbon dioxide emissions.

Making Buildings Smart- Lessons from Telangana

Telangana has taken steps to ensure energy efficiency in its buildings by incorporating the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)’s Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC).
It has included mandatory ECBC and green building codes, under section 176(4) in the newly promulgated Telangana Municipality Act 2019.

Interventions taken for cool-roofing

Telangana has tested cool roof technologies through pilots undertaken in 2017. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) implemented a cool roofs pilot in low-income neighborhoods to showcase the benefits and impact of cool roofs in the city.
Learning from the pilot projects, the government has designed Telangana Cool Roofs Programme. It is a target-based initiative to increase the percentage of cool roofs in the state. The programme will aim to install cool roofs in low-income housing and slum communities.

Cool Roofs

A cool roof is one that has been designed to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than a standard roof.
Depending on the setting, they can help lower indoor temperatures by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius as compared to traditional roofs. These roofs also potentially lead to less air pollution since they save energy, especially on cooling appliances.

Suggested Reforms

Short-term: It’s crucial to ascertain how to respond to extreme heat and urbanization challenges during a major pandemic.
Long term: proactive pre-disaster actions to reduce risk and investment in forward-looking plans, policies and programmes to ensure right choices to balance urban growth and sustainable development.