Australia India Institute Vol.6, February 2018

Making 'Climate-Smart' Indian cities

Dr Komali Yenneti

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India is in the midst of a ‘smart cities’ revolution. The ‘Smart Cities Mission’ promises to make cities more liveable, sustainable, and resilient. But how can this be achieved when cities are facing a series of complex interconnected challenges related to urban warming? Cities are getting hotter, with severe implications for public health, comfort, energy demand, labour productivity and economy. Urban heat mitigation and preparing communities for the impending heat are some of the major challenges facing urban sustainability in India. This Very Short Policy Brief identifies a range of climate-smart solutions and key strategies for urban heat management, including:

• Integrating climate-smart solutions into all existing operations, policies, plans and ‘road-maps’

• Setting targets and performance measures for effective implementation and monitoring

• Developing tools and resources for public communication and capacity building

• Providing opportunities for community engagement

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Cities and Heat Management: An Overview

Cities are expected to facilitate quality of life for their inhabitants. However, city dwellers are increasingly facing heat stress in their natural and built environments. Extreme summer temperatures and heatwaves are now a common occurrence worldwide, and they are becoming more frequent, extended, and extreme in India1. Cities particularly heat up faster than surrounding rural areas due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, a phenomenon caused by the concentrated energy released from traffic, building air-conditioning, and industrial output combined with heat trapped by large dark concrete buildings, asphalt roads, and close structures. Evidence from India’s major cities show that systematic higher average temperatures of 2-12°C occur in highly-urbanised areas compared with their rural surroundings2. Increasingly hot summers and frequent heat waves have devastating effects on energy demand3, public health and well-being4, worker productivity5 and economy6. A stark insight into the multiple risks of heat waves was revealed when more people died in India from heat-related illness in the last decade than from any other natural disasters during the same period7.

Governments and policy-makers can utilise a variety of mitigation measures linked to urban planning, building morphology, and surface characteristics combined with adaptive actions associated with community engagement, education and response measures in developing and implementing heat management strategies.

1. Central governments. Central government institutions can integrate a wide variety of climate-smart solutions, such as green infrastructure, water sensitive urban design (WSUD) and reflective materials, into the National Building Code, Smart Cities Mission and all major policies, fund business case research for green infrastructure and cool materials, and undertake nationwide public communication and capacity building initiatives.

2. State Governments. State governments can implement urban forestry strategies to protect existing greenery and increase urban vegetation, promote WSUD projects to allow water retention and cooling from evaporation, develop cool roof policy to increase the use of reflective materials in all new building construction and retrofit projects, and extend incentives and grants to encourage the public and private to adopt green infrastructure and cool materials.

3. Local governments. Local governments can develop guidelines and use existing planning tools to support the implementation of area- and building-specific heat mitigation measures, implement tree and landscape ordinances to prohibit citizens from pruning or removing trees without a city permit, and engage with communities, housing organisations and social service providers through heat action plans and awareness activities to lower the impact of heat events and protect vulnerable people.

These key strategies and actions, some of which can be implemented immediately within current budgets and work programs, and others that will require more funding for implementation over the medium- and long-terms, can help governments manage urban heat and benefit from multiple improvements in public health, energy, economy and quality of life.

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The role of climate-smart solutions in delivering liveable cities

The role of climate-smart solutions in delivering liveable cities

A range of climate-smart solutions are available to support governments and regulatory agencies seeking to moderate urban microclimates and socio-economic impacts of extreme heat events in major urban centres across a range of climates in India.

1. Green infrastructureGreen infrastructure is a network of natural and designed urban green spaces, including urban parks, street trees, community gardens and emerging urban greenery technologies such as green roofs and walls. Tree canopy cover in India’s major urban areas is less than 10%8. Evidence shows that green infrastructure is an effective and economical urban cooling strategy for India9. For example, an increase of tree canopy cover of up to 40% can lower afternoon ambient temperatures by as much as 5.5⁰C10. Ambient temperature reduction in parks with sufficient irrigation can be 1-2°C compared with adjacent un-vegetated or built-up areas. Street tree canopy cover can be increased by planting more shade trees on footpaths, lanes and street medians. Where there is a shortage of space for parks and street trees, green roofs and walls may be viable options11.

2. Water sensitive urban designWater sensitive urban design (WSUD) is the sustainable management of water in urban areas through integrated design. It takes into account natural water bodies, pools, ponds, rainwater storage technologies, bio-swales, urban wetlands, bio-retention systems and other site-specific measures to manage water as well as innovative cooling technologies such as evaporative spray cooling systems, misting fans and sprinklers. Water-based urban landscapes can decrease ambient temperatures up to 3-8⁰C through water retention and evaporative cooling12. WSUD should ideally be combined with green infrastructure. Together, they can moderate urban microclimate, improve air quality, assist with flood management and provide attractive public spaces.

3. Cool surfacesA cool surface material has low heat conductivity, low heat capacity, high solar reflectance, and high permeability. The use of cool materials on streets, pavements and roofs is an important heat mitigation strategy as building materials are the major contributors to urban heat island (UHI) effect. Using lighter aggregates and binders in asphalt and concrete, and permeable block pavers made from foam concrete, permeable asphalt and resin concrete are effective methods to cool paved surfaces13. Similarly, there is demonstrable evidence to suggest that utilising cool materials for building roofs and façades can reduce indoor temperature by 2-5°C14, improve indoor comfort and reduce cooling energy use15.

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4. ShadingShading can decrease radiant temperature and significantly improve outdoor thermal comfort. Providing shading on shopping streets, building entries and public venues using urban greenery, artificial structures (e.g., temporary shades, sunshades, and shades using solar panels) or a combination of both can prevent solar radiation and increase outdoor thermal comfort.

5. Behavioural changesUrban heat increases through air-conditioning. The waste heat from air-conditioners heats up the outdoor spaces. Air conditioning sales in India have increased by 20% annually in recent years16, and are expected to further grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.39% during the period 2017-202117. Such a trend will significantly affect urban microclimate, increase electricity demand and add billions of tons of carbon pollution. Climate responsive building design and integration of adaptive design techniques in existing building stock, can minimise cooling energy demand, reduce indoor and outdoor temperatures and increase occupants’ thermal comfort.

6. Community adaptation and education Community adaptation plays a crucial role in urban heat management. A variety of adaptation measures such as early-warnings in traditional and social media, installing water stations and cooling centres in major public spaces, can not only help the public and private to cope up with the extreme heat but also encourage them to adopt mitigation technologies on their properties.

The following sections identifies challenges for urban heat management, and then recommend key strategies for climate-smart and resilient cities.

Challenges and Implementation barriers

Urban heat management has been an important policy agenda for the central government efforts on energy efficiency and global climate change. Some local governments have developed heat action plans in partnerships with state disaster management authorities, health departments and meteorological offices18. These plans focus on ad-hoc emergency response and public awareness activities during extreme heat, but fail to address heat mitigation needed for lowering urban ambient temperatures to a comfortable level and achieving maximum long-term impact.

Overall, India faces eight challenges and implementation barriers for urban heat management.

1. Lack of an integrated approach. India lacks an integrated approach to the issue of urban heat. National, state and city governments have evolved their own idiosyncratic policies and strategies18. The lack of standardised and consistent policy that can act as a useful guide for local and regional governments is a major challenge.

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2. Fragmented governance. Despite, or perhaps because of, overlapping policies and complex urban governance arrangements, climate change and urban sustainability governance in India remains fragmented. There is a lack of portfolio alignment between energy, climate change and urban planning institutions between and among the jurisdictions. Such a governance system creates confusion, and, at times, tensions between institutions and jurisdictions.

3. Limited capacity and resources. Local governments face significant challenges due to limited resources (human, infrastructure and skills). Policymakers and planners juggle a range of competing demands in planning and development of cities, including housing affordability, economic development and infrastructure provision 19. Urban heat is neither considered an urgent issue for public health and well-being nor an immediate cost to urban development.

4. Spatial variability of urban heat. Diverse development patterns, spatial contexts and landscape characteristics contribute to variable urban warming patterns in India. A study finds that while all regions in India have experienced an increase in maximum temperatures over the last century, the increase in maximum temperatures has not been uniform, with 1.28⁰C in the west coast, 1⁰C in the north-east, 0.98⁰C in the western Himalayas, 0.88⁰C in the north central, 0.68⁰C in the north-west, 0.68⁰C in the east coast, and 0.58⁰C in the interior peninsula20. Cities with less existing green coverage, low rainfall and high urban densities tend to get affected frequently from extreme heat events than other areas in the country4, 7.

5. Lack of scaling-up of projects. Voluntary initiatives, such as demonstration projects using mitigation technologies and community awareness activities, form the majority of heat management actions in India. Large scale projects and state/city wide initiatives are very limited.

6. Weak links to urban planning and policy. Existing climate-related urban policy interventions predominantly focus on energy efficiency, and have poor connection with heat management. The integration of climate-smart solutions in urban policy and planning is still limited, voluntary and without strong influence.

7. Poor industry engagement and skills. The extent of industry involvement in advising and decision-making for key policies and programs related to urban heat management is insufficient. Procurement businesses and skilled workers for emerging new urban green technologies such as green roofs and walls, water retentive materials and advanced reflective materials are rare.

8. Lack of publicly available information. There are very few information tools and educational resources to help home owners and businesses make their properties cooler. Information to support local governments and social service providers for educating citizens about responding to and coping with extreme heat events are rare.

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Transforming India’s urban centres into green, cool and more liveable cities requires a combination of mitigation and adaptation efforts.Urban heat can only be managed through collaborative effort and commitment across communities and governments. There is a range of actions that governments can take for each of the four key strategy areas to address heat-related challenges and build climate smartness in cities.

1. Integrate climate-smart solutions into all existing operations, policies and ‘road-maps’

Climate change has traditionally been a part of national government policy, while urban planning and environmental management come under the purview of local governments. Urban heat management is acknowledged in national level policies such as National Mission on Green India, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, Energy Conservation Building Code and the Green Building Rating Systems. At the local level, however, urban heat management only fits a small niche in the heat action plans implemented by about 10 cities to improve community response during summer18.

As the relation between climate change and urban development becomes stronger, integration of climate-smart solutions into all relevant government policies and operations becomes imperative.

Urban heat management can be converged with existing policy programs by:

• Establishing of a ‘Liaison council’, an inter-ministerial coordination committee that will ensure integration, cross-referencing and liaison between appropriate teams in public health, environment, and urban planning offices.

• Including climate-smart solutions in reviews or amendments of relevant national and local policies such as the Smart Cities Mission, Environment Impact Assessment, National Building Code, building regulations, master plans, land use planning, urban design guidelines, disaster management plans and community resilience agendas.

• Developing and incorporating street tree inventory measures and tree preservation orders into city operation and management systems to monitor canopy cover, to prohibit citizens from pruning or removing trees without a city permit, to increase the proportion of tree cover, and to improve cooling outcomes.

Each of these actions can drive greater consistency and convergence across India’s urban heat management policy and planning.

2. Set targets and performance measures for effective implementation and monitoring

The best way to increase implementation and achieve widespread adoption of climate-smart solutions is to set short, medium, and long-term targets and benchmarks within urban greening policies. Effective and efficient climate resilience policies usually have built-in targets. For example, the state governments could establish ‘Urban Forestry Strategy’ with targets and benchmarks for urban vegetation and tree canopy cover. The state could facilitate consolidation of existing data of public and private ‘green space’, and if necessary, undertake a baseline data measurement for canopy cover, urban

Strategies and actions for governments to manage urban heat

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vegetation, irrigated cover, and open space cover for developing green infrastructure targets and performance measures to measure progress. The canopy cover mapping should be updated every five years. Relevant policy targets could also be developed for water management infrastructure, cool buildings, cool roofs, cool roads and cool urban infrastructure, baseline data (e.g., water map, thermal map), benefits, costs and heat mitigation potential.

The definition of targets may vary from one administrative jurisdiction to another, but the governments could consider five years for short-term targets, ten years for medium-term, and 20 or more years for long-term to support a uniform policy across the country. Simple quantifiable targets could be considered as they are easier to be shared across governance boundaries and can be integrated into planning and policy cycles more easily.

3. Develop tools and resources for public communication and capacity building

Governments should introduce relevant tools and resources to drive informed decision-making, for investment prioritisation and to promote education and awareness on urban heat management among the public, private and other stakeholders. Primarily, policies aimed at increasing the implementation of climate-smart solutions need to be underpinned by a range of customised information, education and communication (IEC) materials. For example,

• A comprehensive national-level ‘Heat risks and hotspot assessment’, and ‘Social vulnerability mapping’ could be undertaken to raise awareness among all stakeholders, to reduce the future impacts of urban heat, and to locally contextualise climate-smart solutions.

• Local governments could prepare city level ‘Thermal environment maps’ and ‘Guidelines for urban heat mitigation measures’ to enable private businesses and the public to select climate-smart solutions according to the thermal environment in which they operate or live.

• An educational website and a ‘Compendium of urban heat management’ could be developed to promote research and information dissemination. The compendium could bring together diverse examples, experiences, climate-smart solutions, best practices, policies and programs that may be adopted by governments, businesses and communities.

• Relevant educational resources, such as online calculators to assess the benefits of different mitigation measures, tree species calculator, site selection matrix for maximising canopy and green cover, decision support tools to select appropriate climate-smart solutions, and customised local language educational resources (e.g., pamphlets, advertisements, posters and using traditional and social media platforms) on climate-smart solutions can help home owners and businesses keep themselves and their properties cooler.

These are only a few, yet important, examples of the myriad actions that can provide sound guidance needed for governments and other stakeholders to support relevant policies and roadmaps for urban heat management.

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4. Provide opportunities for community engagement Community engagement activities are crucial to inform the public about the risks of heat and to encourage the adoption of climate-smart solutions among the home and business owners. A variety of community engagement techniques can be employed, including incentives from governments, loans, tax breaks, product rebates, grants and giveaways from other organisations, community ownership of green infrastructure, and community-wide behaviour change programs.

Local governments can engage civil society, volunteer networks and community organisations to implement ambitious projects and develop key actions within the above-mentioned broad community engagement strategies. For example,

• Promote new initiatives such as an ‘Urban Forest Day’ (‘jangal sheher mangal desh’) and other urban greenery initiatives and, where possible, align their implementation with priority hotspot areas.

• Liaise with family and primary health services, and collaborate with building resident organisations and other community networks on heat management outreach programs.

• Investigate innovative approaches for community support and ownership of green infrastructure (e.g., Adopt a street tree/‘apnao ped badlao sheher’).

• Engage students, volunteers, civil society, industry ‘champions’, builders’ association and other community networks in local heat mitigation projects (e.g., cool roofs program, urban forestry strategy) and behaviour change education programs (e.g., cool your roof).

• Advocate and involve real estate organisations, resident welfare associations, developers, and architects to increase green infrastructure, enhance water sensitive urban landscape, and use cool materials in new buildings and building retrofits.

• Implement welfare programs during summers and heatwaves to protect public health. Examples include, providing cooling centres and water stations.

Australia's role Australia’s significant expertise in developing urban heat management policies and programs, and delivering practical co-benefits of urban heat management makes it an ideal partner for Indian cities that are striving to become more climate-smart. Australia has:

• A clear national target-oriented objectives, frameworks, strategic directions and action plans to achieve sustainability and liveability in urban areas (e.g., 20 Million Trees by 2020 program, Our Cities, Our Future framework, Building Better Cities program).

• Comprehensive state-level policies and regulations to support mitigation and behavioural change climate-smart solutions (e.g., Tree Preservation Orders, Cool

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Roof Regulations)

• Local level programs and planning instruments to scale-up the implementation of mitigation measures at both building and city levels (e.g., Tree canopy targets).

• Extensive welfare programs to support community adaptation during summer and community engagement activities (e.g., footpath gardening, community gardens, urban farms, and cool city initiatives).

• Sound system of data collection, monitoring and management regarding thermal hotspots, social vulnerability, tree cover, urban vegetation cover, surface types (pervious and impervious) and local projects (e.g., decision-support tools, heat mapping tools).

Australia’s capabilities in dealing with rising urban temperatures can make a major contribution towards developing sustainable and liveable cities in India. Because Australia is at the forefront of building climate-smart cities using a combination of building practices, urban design and planning processes that are climate responsible and resource efficient, it can help Indian cities achieve improved urban heat management by:

• Sharing best practices, ideas and projects via strategic policy dialogues and conversations, knowledge exchange events and formation of co-operation networks between organisations in Australia and India.

• Providing funding to support scientific and industry collaborations between Australia and India in order to advance cost-effective urban heat mitigation technologies, broaden markets and enhance project implementation.

• Supporting policy makers in India to develop better strategies and actions on urban heat governance through bilateral collaborations.

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1. Kapoor, P., India’s five hottest years since 1901 came in past 15 years, IMD data shows, in Livemint. 2017: New Delhi.

2. Santamouris, M., Analyzing the heat island magnitude and characteristics in one hundred Asian and Australian cities and regions. Science of The Total Environment, 2015. 512–513: p. 582-598.

3. Akpinar-Ferrand, E. and A. Singh, Modeling increased demand of energy for air conditioners and consequent CO2 emissions to minimize health risks due to climate change in India. Environmental Science & Policy, 2010. 13(8): p. 702-712.

4. Azhar, G.S., et al., Heat-Related Mortality in India: Excess All-Cause Mortality Associated with the 2010 Ahmedabad Heat Wave. PloS One, 2014. 9(3).

5. Krishnamurthy, M., et al., Occupational Heat Stress Impacts on Health and Productivity in a Steel Industry in Southern India. Safety and Health at Work, 2017. 8(1): p. 99-104.

6. Saha, D. Rising temperatures could cut 3.6% of India’s daylight work hours by 2025. 2016 [cited 2017 June 2]; Available from: https://scroll.in/article/809706/rising-heat-could-cut-3-6-of-indias-daylight-work-hours.

7. Desai, V.K., et al., Effect of ambient heat on all-cause mortality in the coastal city of Surat, India. Current Science, 2015. 109(9): p. 1680-1686.

8. Thakur, B.S. Chandigarh has third-highest tree cover in India. 2014 [cited 2018 January 23]; Available from: https://www.hindustantimes.com/chandigarh/chandigarh-has-third-highest-tree-cover-in-india/story-WS9QsTBjCuRTJhqo4AFDBN.html.

9. Govindarajulu, D., Urban green space planning for climate adaptation in Indian cities. Urban Climate, 2014. 10, Part 1: p. 35-41.

10. Vailshery, L.S., M. Jaganmohan, and H. Nagendra, Effect of street trees on microclimate and air pollution in a tropical city. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2013. 12(3): p. 408-415.

11. Pandey, S., D.A. Hindoliya, and R. mod, Artificial neural network for predation of cooling load reduction using green roof over building in Sustainable City. Sustainable Cities and Society, 2012. 3: p. 37-45.

12. Manteghi, G., H. bin Limit, and D. Remaz, Water Bodies an Urban Microclimate: A Review. Modern Applied Science, 2015. 9(6): p. 1-10.

13. Santamouris, M., Using cool pavements as a mitigation strategy to fight urban heat island—A review of the actual developments. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2013. 26: p. 224-240.

14. Garg, V., et al., Assessment of the impact of cool roofs in rural buildings in India. Energy and Buildings, 2016. 114: p. 156-163.

References

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15. Akbari, H. and H.D. Matthews, Global cooling updates: Reflective roofs and pavements. Energy and Buildings, 2012. 55: p. 2-6.

16. Peterson, D. India likely to experience continued growth in electricity use for air conditioning. 2015 [cited 2017 17th May]; Available from: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=23512.

17. TechNavio, Air Conditioning Market in India 2017-2021. 2017: India. p. 66.

18. Jaiswal, A. A Tale of Three Cities: Heat Action Plans Across India. 2016 [cited 2018 January 21]; Available from: https://www.nrdc.org/experts/anjali-jaiswal/tale-three-cities-heat-action-plans-across-india.

19. Colding, J. and S. Barthel, The potential of ‘Urban Green Commons’ in the resilience building of cities. Ecological Economics, 2013. 86: p. 156-166.

20. Dash, S.K., et al., Some evidence of climate change in twentieth-century India. Climatic change, 2007. 85(3): p. 299-321.

References

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