Publications

Rao, P; Gupta, K; Roy, A; Balan, R (2021). Spatio-temporal analysis of land surface temperature for identification of heat wave risk and vulnerability hotspots in Indo-Gangetic Plains of India. THEORETICAL AND APPLIED CLIMATOLOGY, 146(2-Jan), 567-582.

Abstract
The increasing frequency of heat waves (HW) in many parts of the world is emerging as one of the climatic vulnerabilities across the world resulting in elevated thermal stress and high mortality. With increase in HW intensity, frequency and duration at global level, India has seen several major HW events in the last decade. HW conditions have mostly been studied by analysing ground-based observations; however, this approach lacks information on spatial variability at the local scale, which is not adequate to identify HW risk and vulnerability hotspots. In this study, gridded analysis of spatio-temporal variability of HW indices has been carried out by utilising freely available Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Land Surface Temperature (LST) data on Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India. HW indices to analyse duration, frequency and intensity of HW have been identified and further computed on a grid size of 10 km*10 km area. HW risk and vulnerability hotspot in the study region have been identified by spatial modelling of HW indices, LULC change and population density. The HW risk and vulnerability hotspot layer identified NCT Delhi and its surrounding region at the highest risk of HW with high vulnerability. A strong positive correlation of variability of HW indicators with increasing built-up shows that built-up surfaces affect strongly the HW conditions.

DOI:
10.1007/s00704-021-03756-0

ISSN:
0177-798X