Comparative Analysis of the Baseline and Remodelled Scenario to Study the Presence of Green Infrastructure to Mitigate Heat Intensity: A Case of Vijayawada City
摘要
The majority of India’s tier-two cities are witnessing both vertical and horizontal expansion, regardless of their diverse topographical and climatic conditions. In addition to the expansion of cities, urbanization also plays a significant role, impacting the spatial and environmental conditions and contributing to environmental risks such as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Subsequently, multiple study findings have consistently shown that UHI effect is a result of an amalgamation of different crucial climatic factors present within the urban environment. Globally, various approaches are being tested to mitigate UHI effect. The green infrastructure (GI) approach is identified as one of the simplest, resilient, and most cost-effective approaches due to its easy applicability. Furthermore, this approach has been extensively examined in several studies conducted on a wider geographical scale, using tools like Geographic Information Systems (GIS), etc. This research intends to examine the impact of UHI for varied locations within a city, which have distinct topographic and physiographic conditions for extreme hot and humid climate. The study area is chosen as Vijayawada city, India; one of the fastest growing cities having distinct topography and physiographic conditions (hot and humid). This study was conducted at the microscale at three locations for mixed land use within the proximity of 2 km. Further, to simulate the base and remodelled scenarios of study areas, ENVI-met 5.5.1 lit version has been used. In this preview, data have been collected for dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed on 11th November 2023 at 1:00 PM. This is simulated for five climatic parameters such as potential air temperature (PAT), mean radiant temperature (MRT), relative humidity (RH), wind speed (WS) and direct radiation short wave (DRSW). Comparative study showed that even within the closed proximity, all these five parameters are varying. Later green vegetation was introduced strategically and simulated to record its impact on heat intensity which eventually helps to understand the impact on UHI effect at microscale. This paper intends to look into the critical understanding about resilience developed by its locational criteria to mitigate or to reduce the UHI effect at microlevel.