Industrial heat island mitigation in Angul-Talcher region of India: Evaluation using modified WRF-Single Urban Canopy Model

Linkages of urban and industrial cooling with sustainable development goals and climate change perspectives are well acknowledged, mainly for developing economies in tropical climates. Angul-Talcher region is one of the oldest industrial clusters of India, and the region experiences higher atmospheric heat island intensities with magnitudes of 7 to 9 °C attributed to the Industrial Heat Island (IHI) effect. In the present study, various measures for mitigating heat island effect in the region and assessed their impact using an Improved Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with the Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model. The improved framework includes the release of industrial emissions at stack height and sector-wise diurnal profiles of anthropogenic heat (AH) released from vehicles, residential, and industry/power. The mitigation measures comprised strategies like alteration in building materials and conversion of landuse-landcover (LULC) of selected grid cells in the model domain to more vegetation or water bodies. It was noted that the cool roofs and walls together reduced IHIs by 0.5 °C, while green roofs and cool pavements achieved a reduction of 0.3 °C and 0.1 °C, respectively. The introduction of water bodies showed maximum reduction in IHIs by 3 to 5 °C during daytime and 1 to 2 °C over mining and industrial stations. During night-time, conversion to mixed forests was more effective (ΔT ≈ 1 °C) than conversion to water bodies. A combination of cool roofs with the introduction of water bodies in the mining areas and mixed forest patches in industry stations was found to be the most effective mitigation strategy for mitigating the industrial heat island effect over the Angul-Talcher region. These mitigation scenarios can/should serve as a theoretical reference for implementing actual mitigation measures, which would require consideration of economic, social, and policy aspects apart from scientific ones for practical application.