Contribution of Impervious Surfaces to Urban Heat Island in Pune

Abstract

Urbanization has brought about several undesirable environmental changes. Pune has witnessed rapid growth and deep urban transformation processes, especially in the last three decades. With urban heat island being one of the prominent effects of urbanization it is necessary to study its effects.
When city has a significantly higher temperature than an adjacent rural area, this is known as Urban Heat Island. Urban and less developed surrounding locations have different temperature due to how efficiently the surfaces in each area absorb and retain heat. Lack of vegetation, dark surfaces, climate
change, impervious surfaces, wind-blocking, waste heat, thermal mass, etc. are the parameters for urban heat island. Impervious surfaces are one of the parameter for urban heat island. Due to rapid urbanization, impervious surfaces have also increased. For road construction, natural earth surface
is replaced with hard pavement in an urban environment and which is responsible for the urban heat island. Impervious surfaces absorb more incident radiation than pervious surfaces. The heating and cooling rate is dependent on the thermal properties of impervious surfaces that lead to urban heat
island. Normally 13–14% area is covered by road from the total land-use area of the city. So, there is a need to study the contribution of impervious surfaces to urban heat island. The aim of the study is to analyze the contribution of impervious surfaces with respect to the urban heat island in Pune. The
objectives define work to identify urban heat island zones of Pune, selection of cases for observation, according to the selected locations to study existing impervious materials, and measure & analyze the response of impervious surfaces with respect to urban heat island. It was a time-based field study for
a selected urban heat island zone in Pune. The paper concludes with recommendations for impervious surfaces to reduce the urban heat island effect.