Heat Island Effect Can Make Core Of Cities 7 Degrees Hotter: Expert To NDTV

Robert Muir-Wood, Chief Research Officer at Moody's RMS, said heat waves are increasing in India and the urban heat island effect poses dangers to health as well as productivity.

As heat waves increase in India with the rise in global warming, cities are particularly vulnerable because temperatures at the heart of the urban jungles can be as many as seven degrees higher than the areas surrounding them, a leading expert has said.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV on Thursday, Robert Muir-Wood, Chief Research Officer at Moody's RMS, a risk management company, attributed this rise to a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect which, he said, is not only detrimental to productivity but can also cause illness. 

Heat deaths have risen in India in the past decade and, while all metropolises are vulnerable to the heat island effect, the problem is more acute in India, where cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata have a very high population density. Vanishing greenery in the cities has exacerbated the problem, which is likely to get worse as almost 60% of the global population will be living in urban centres in the next 20 years.