Centre for Heat Resilience in Tamil Nadu has a big roadmap: Supriya Sahu

Additional Chief Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, Supriya Sahu on Friday said that the newly established Heat Resilience Center in Tamil Nadu will have an extensive road map, including high-resolution heat maps for all cities in Tamil Nadu.

The Heat Resilience Center in Tamil Nadu, established under the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Corporation, is a key initiative under the UK Government’s Climate Action for Resilient Asia Programme.

heat maps

This marks another partnership between the UK and the Government of Tamil Nadu. Speaking at an event to celebrate the launch of the Heat Resilience Center in Tamil Nadu, Ms. Sahu said, “The action we will take is with heat maps. Heat maps are very important for targeted interventions. If you do not have high-resolution heat maps monitored over a period of time, you cannot design effective interventions.” “It’s very important right now that we have large-scale, real-time, city-based heat maps. So we should look at preparing those (Heat Resilience Centre),” he said.[forHeatResilience)”shesaid[forHeatResilience)”shesaid

“Do we have enough climate scientists? Do we have urban heat engineers? Do we have GIS (Geographic Information System) experts, architects trained in cool city planning? Do we have health risk modelers? I don’t think we have enough. This is the second intervention we want to undertake. We want to strengthen the technical capacity of our state institutions and private institutions to manage heat risk scientifically. Third, we must include heat risk areas in master plans. For this we need to work closely with the Housing Authority and together with the Urban Development Department. Identify areas now so that strategies can be implemented from the very beginning as soon as master plans are prepared,” said Ms. Sahu.

Ms. Sahu also highlighted sponge cities and water cooling infrastructure, mangrove corridors and biodiversity index for various cities that the Center may consider. Tender for biodiversity park on the outskirts of Chennai will be floated soon.

It sought measures to overcome challenges such as urban warming, heat stress in rural areas, and gaps in data collection from rural and urban areas. He hinted at establishing a Circularity Center to design a sustainable framework for a circular economy.

Seema Malhotra, UK Minister for the Indo-Pacific, said extreme heat is one of the most pressing climate challenges we face today, and the Center for Heat Resilience in Tamil Nadu marked the beginning of a joint effort led by the Government of Tamil Nadu, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Resources Institute to develop a joint framework for action against heat stress.

“Tamil Nadu has shown remarkable leadership on climate innovation. It is the first Indian State to establish a State Green Climate Fund and the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Corporation, and you have launched missions on climate change, greening, wetland restoration and coastal resilience. Tamil Nadu is also a pioneer in recognizing heatwaves as a State-specific disaster,” he said.

Halima Holland, British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai, and Rahul Nadh, Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Corporation, attended.