A big picture of urban heat island mitigation strategies and recommendation for India

Climate change poses a great threat to humans and the ecosystem of the planet. There are many factors that trigger climate change, and there are many aftereffects. One of the after-effects is Urban Heat Island (UHI), recognized as the most evident characteristic of urban climate which occurs due to dark, non-reflective surfaces. These surfaces absorb the warmth of the Sun, radiate heat; Thus, increase the land surface temperature. Additionally, heat islands increase cooling loads in the summer, which tends to increase energy consumption and produce more greenhouse gases. There are numerous strategies to mitigate the UHI effect. This study reviews various UHI mitigation strategies and their effectiveness in cooling the urban environment and propose a set of recommendation based on research and analysis. Broadly, the mitigation strategies have been divided into (i) Roof strategies, (ii) non-roof strategies, and (iii) covered parking strategies. It has been found out that the simultaneous use of several UHI mitigation measures has a more significant impact on lowering the urban temperature and could be mitigated. The study highlights the importance of each mitigation strategy and presents a set of recommendations for India that can be directed at the government level to policies to mitigate the UHI effect.