Cities are warming up faster than rural areas by 29%: Study

BEIJING: According to a recent study, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment,   cities across the globe are warming by 0.5 Degree Celsius on an average per decade which is 29 percent quicker than rural areas. The research shows that local weather change and concrete enlargement are accelerating floor temperatures.  People in cities experience greater heat exposure than the rest of the population due to the ‘urban heat island’ effect. Urban Heat Island is the phenomenon where urban areas get relatively higher temperatures than rural areas.

The study has also analysed satellite land surface temperature data and compared them to background rural surface temperatures over 2000 cities between 2002 and 2021. In countries like China and India, urban expansion is responsible for over 0.23 degrees Celsius of total surface temperature rise in cities over a decade.

However, researchers from Nanjing University in China have noted that in European cities, urban greening has been reported to offset about 0.13 degrees Celsius of surface warming per decade. This indicates the potential of urban vegetation to slow down surface warming.