With Ahmedabad getting roasted at over 44 degrees Celcius on Saturday – the highest temperature recorded this season – it is a grim reminder of the fast pace at which the city has lost its trees.
A recent student project at CEPT University showed that part of a road under the shade of a tree was 6-8 degrees Celsius cooler than the road without the green cover!
Aditya S Deshmukh, a master’s student in urban infrastructure, studied urban heat stress in Ahmedabad as his final-year research project and studied heat from multiple perspectives under guideship of Prof Saswat Bandopadhyay.
According to Indian State of Forest Report, Ahmedabad’s green cover got curtailed by 47% between 2011 and 2021 from 17.9 sq km to 9.4 sq km. The field survey was carried out with an infrared thermometer where 89 samples from different areas were collected for analysis. It indicated that compared to the shaded street’s temperature of 31.2 degrees Celsius during afternoon hours, the unshaded street had a temperature of 39.9 degrees.
“Across different residential types, the difference was found to be significant – and tree cover can play a major role in reducing temperatures. We have also suggested high-rise planning in a manner where its shadow can cover some part of nearby road and low-rises,” said Deshmukh. “The general mapping and zoning of the city to understand the built environment indicate that about 6.4% of the city’s surface area has dense trees and 3.7% has scattered trees. It is not completely accurate but gives an indication of the city’s tree cover,” said Deshmukh. “Compared to 9 square meters per person recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the city has about 6.8 sq m.”
