As India enters another scorching summer with warnings of a prolonged heatwave, I was reminded of my visit to Ahmedabad’s walled city last year. I found myself here after a gap of decades and wanted to use the time efficiently to supplement work with my interest in history. The challenge, of course, was a fear of the sweltering heat the city is known for.
So, with some trepidation, I arranged an early morning walking tour of the old city, aiming to finish before the day got really hot. To my surprise, I didn’t feel the heat as long as I was in the walled city. As soon as I got out, the heat hit. In my surprise lies a lesson for urbanisation that is worth reflecting on as we deal with another heatwave.
Ahmedabad’s old city is one of the oldest living habitations in India, with the street layout and many buildings largely unchanged from when they were built at the beginning of the 15th century. With narrow but largely straight streets, closely packed buildings with airy rooms, courtyards, verandas and much else, the old city is designed to keep the heat out. Interestingly, there is little tree cover.
Modern cities, designed on different principles do much worse in managing heat. The term urban heat island has been well-known for decades. In India, the acuteness of this challenge is underlined not just by the current heatwave, but by dire predictions of how much harder it is about to become with climate change. So what can be done? There are three factors that we are getting wrong and need to fix urgently. The impact of mistakes today will be with us for decades, emphasising the need for urgency.
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Prioritise public transport
First, our cities must be designed to consume less and emit less. The case for public transport is made from many perspectives, reflecting its many benefits. One that is obvious, but often not central to the debate, is that public transport-driven cities are less carbon-intensive. Data on consumption-based emissions is elusive but data from the UK shows that London’s per capita emission is about 20 per cent lower than the rest of the country. With income being so much higher, London would be expected to have higher emissions. This fact is therefore all the more striking. Analysis shows that transport and building-related emissions—the effect of transport and smaller, more tightly packed housing—are the source of the difference.
The lesson for India from this is twofold. We may be proud of how many metros have been built but it has yet to make the impact in arresting the shift towards cars and two-wheelers. There is an obvious answer in buses. There is finally some action on this front but nowhere near the scale that is needed. We need a solution on public transport that stops the move to private transport. Both in the short term and in the end state, buses provide a solution that is grossly underestimated. That the benefits can be scaled up fast—unlike metros, which are seeing the bulk of the investment—is a factor that cannot be ignored.
Separately, India is building housing and commercial buildings at a rate unparalleled worldwide. But, rather than create a design idiom that is sympathetic to our climatic conditions, as witnessed in Ahmedabad, we are copying the same tired designs seen worldwide—of concrete, steel, and glass. Those able to afford air conditioning, a growing number, are overcoming the design shortcomings with more energy consumption. Improvements in building standards are desperately needed. I have yet to see a construction site wrapped in insulation in a way that is common in other countries.
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Build climate-resistant cities
Critically, this debate on reducing emissions has to be divorced from the often loud and emotional argument that India emits less on a per capita basis than other countries and thus bears less responsibility for climate change. It doesn’t matter who causes more of the problem. We should be taking steps not to lock in high energy consumption forever.
Second, climate mitigation is missing in our planning. Exposure to heat can be reduced by expensive measures like air conditioning, but also by much simpler measures like creating walking paths with unbroken tree cover. In commercial areas, arcades can also protect people from the sun. Remarkably, the Fort area in Mumbai, BBD Bagh (Dalhousie) in Kolkata and Connaught Place in Delhi, all built in the early 20th century have these features. Modern commercial developments seem to have given up on this in favour of creating air-conditioned spaces for the small section of the population who can afford it, while consigning everyone else to a much worse experience.
Simple things like trees or other shade for people compelled to carry out some or all of their day outdoors can make an enormous difference, reducing their heat exposure by as much as 10° celsius.
Mitigation efforts of this kind will also increase the usage of public transport. Remember that every public transport journey starts and finishes with a walking trip. It is a fact easily forgotten by decision-makers.
Third, whether we like it or not the climate is getting hotter. That is where climate adaptation comes in. Designing cities along the reduction and mitigation principles outlined above is a way of adapting to climate change. But preparing for heat events with measures such as heat-resistant infrastructure, and covered shelters for people in them can help overcome the approaching challenges.
Flooding is a growing risk as well. Most of our cities do not have any stormwater drainage at all. The results are visible every monsoon. That is only about to get worse.
All of these measures take time to implement, time that we just don’t have. There should be no doubt about the urgency or the criticality of this. One look at the thermometer today should convince you of that.
And yet, we have not heard even a word on these existential issues in the election campaign. Perhaps the incoming government in June and our 28 state governments will give this the attention it is due.
Shashi Verma is Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)