REAL-TIME ISOHUME MAPPING FOR COOL AND WARM HUMIDITY ISLES OF BENGALURU CITY

Abstract

A naturally gifted city, the development of Urban Moisture Islands (UMI) in Bengaluru is disheartening owing to its rampant-unplanned urbanization to satisfy its rapidly prevalent population. The subsequent increase in built-up area, consequent loss of productive agricultural lands/green zones, encroachment of surface water bodies coupled with the ill-preparedness of decision makers to handle the expansion have invariably impacted the micro-climate of the city. In this present research, an attempt has been made to detect the development of Urban Moisture Islands in Bengaluru by conducting real-time survey at 100 observatories marked across the entire urban locations; with thermo-hygrometers as per the W.M.O. guidelines. The study confirmed the violation of the Human Thermal Comfort Range in 61, 3, 36, 62, 32 and 14 stations during the monitoring for 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM, 6 PM and 9 PM respectively. The major causative factors for this drastic climatic transformation from the once sobriquet climate is due to the elevated greenhouse gas emissions, gradual loss of green cover, steady replacement of natural surfaces with materials that have higher thermal properties.

Keywords

• bengaluru
• islands
• moisture
• thermal
• urban