The embracing of rapid urbanisation for better lifestyles has led to mindless concretisation, proving to be one of the biggest threats to the outdoor temperature in cities.
Commonly known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, this localised phenomenon causes a rise in the land surface temperature (LST) as materials absorb and retain heat. This leads to a series of direct and indirect impacts on citizens, biodiversity, and emissions.

What is un-natural in today’s context is that in just 200 years, there’s been a 40% increase in carbon dioxide which has already caused warming of 1 degree. Not only is the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide higher than what scientists have observed in 800,000 years, but current warming on Earth is occurring ten times faster than normally seen during an inter-glacial period.

Traffic and transportation surveys are essential to gain a clearer perspective on issues such as gridlock at major junctions and lower-than-forecasted metro ridership. In fact, these surveys are important to identify the root causes and develop traffic mitigation measures.

India announced its net-zero target for the year 2070. Long-term projection models are expected to play an important role in developing India’s strategies to achieve this target. However, developing such long-term strategies is a very complex and challenging task because of the uncertainties involved in looking at such long-time horizons.

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Newly-operationalised airports improve connectivity, boost tourism and trade, and generate employment (infrastructure and airport-allied services). But the success of the UDAN scheme rests on the footfall witnessed by these airports over time. Although affordable airfare is a prime factor for travellers, the question remains whether this aspect alone is sufficient to make air travel feasible for the common man.

The impacts of climate variability, climate change, and extreme events are visible globally and in India. The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 ranks India seventh, considering the extent to which India has been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heatwaves, etc.). The index signals that repercussions of escalating climate change are exacerbating and can no longer be ignored.

India’s energy sector will face two key challenges in the future. Firstly, there is the rising energy demand from a developing economy, whose priority remains bringing people out of poverty. For a country heavily dependent on fossil-fuel imports, there are high costs to meeting this demand. Secondly, India has set an ambitious target of becoming a net-zero economy by 2070. These are strong climate commitments and require the entire energy sector to reduce its overall emissions and mitigate the effects of the global climate crisis.