IIIT-H to hos Intl Conference on Counter Measures to Urban Heat Islands
IIIT-H to hos Intl Conference on Counter Measures to Urban Heat Islands(IC2UHI) to combat excess summer heat and air pollution in hot cities through right choice of building materials and better urban design
The conference after Tokyo, Berkeley (California), Venice, and Singapore, comes to Hyderabad in India for the first time
Highly relevant to scientists, engineers, builders, architects, and government officials, it will be inaugurated by Mr Arvind Kumar IAS, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD)
29 November 2019, Hyderabad: IIIT Hyderabad will be hosting the International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Islands (IC2UHI) to combat excess summer heat and air pollution in hot cities through right choice of building materials and better urban design. It will be held from December 2nd to 4th, 2019 at IIIT Hyderabad Campus in Gachibowli.
This is the 5th IC2UHI conference. With earlier ones held in Tokyo, Berkeley (California), Venice, and Singapore, this is the first time the IC2UHI is being held in India.
It has long been recognised that the excessive heat and smog in many cities in the summer, the “Urban Heat Island”, is partly due to the choices of building materials, lack of vegetation, and urban design. The conference is devoted to the science, engineering and public policies to help relieve excess heat and air pollution of summers in hot cities.
The conference which is highly relevant to scientists, engineers, builders, architects, and government officials, will be inaugurated by Mr Arvind Kumar IAS, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD)
Some of the highlights of the conference include:
· Around 100 technical paper presentations in four parallel sessions including case studies on Urban Heat Island
· Three keynote speakers including Prof. David Sailor (Arizona State University), Dr. Ronnen Levinson (LBNL, USA) and Mr. Tanmay Tathagat (Environmental Design Solutions, India)
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· Plenary talk by Prof. Hashem Akbari, Concordia University, Canada
An Open Session has also been introduced, which will be free for everyone on 4 December (limited seats) from 2pm – 6pm and includes:
· A case study from Los Angeles on Cool Pavements
· Session on UHI mitigation initiatives in India
· Panel discussion on Implementation challenges in India
Speaking about the conference, Prof Vishal Garg, Head of Centre of IT in Building Sciences, IIITH and organising chair of the conference said, “An urban heat island is an urban area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities. The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day and is most apparent when winds are weak. This UHI leads to an increase in energy consumption, elevated emissions of air pollutants and adversely impacts human health and comfort, especially of urban poor.
In Indian cities, we are witnessing an increase in temperature due to UHI leading to increased number of heatwaves. In this conference, the current research on countermeasure to urban heat island will be presented and discussed. Through the open session on the last day of the conference, we will present the current research and learnings from the international case studiesto practitioners, and policymakers in India. Further, this will be an opportunity to showcase and discuss the initiatives in India, such as the Telangana Government’s, “Making Telangana a cool state – a state-wide cool roof program” with the international experts. This program aims to achieve 100 sq. Km cool roof area in Hyderabad by 2030. Scientists, engineers, builders, architects, and governmentofficials concerned with improving the urban environment are participating in the conference.