Quantifying the local cooling effects of urban green spaces: Evidence from Bengaluru, India

Rapid unplanned urbanization has led to a deterioration in green cover in Indian cities and an increase in urban temperatures due to the urban heat island (UHI) effect. With India’s urban population set to double from 400 million in 2011 to 800 million by 2050, it becomes critical to understand the role of urban green spaces (UGS) in mitigating the UHI. In this study, we have used high-resolution Landsat and Google Earth data and integrated it with spatial statistical analysis to quantify the cooling effects provided by UGS beyond their boundaries. We analyzed cooling effects at the level of individual UGS for 262 UGS in the megacity of Bengaluru, India. Our results showed that the average UGS provided local cooling effects till points 347 m (95% CI: 318 m to 376 m) beyond its boundary. The average UGS was 2.23 °C (95% CI: 2.13 °C to 2.33 °C) cooler than the point where it ceased to provide cooling effects. Cooling effects reduced with distance from the UGS, and were impacted by the greenness, size, and shape of the UGS. The findings of this study are important in the context of India’s Smart Cities Mission that has been criticized for an inadequate focus on urban greening. Our study addresses a concern that most previous studies have used a small sample of UGS for their analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to quantify the role of UGS in localized surface temperature reduction for a large Indian city.