84 pc Jump in settlement areas behind rising temperature in coastal Odisha

RAPID urban expansion and declining vegetation cover are significantly transforming the coastal Odisha, leading to a steady increase in land surface temperatures over the last two decades, reveals a new study.

- SUDARSAN MAHARANA @Bhubaneswar

The recent study ‘Urbanization and Its Impact on Land Surface Temperature: A Case Study in Coastal Odisha, India,’ carried out by the researchers from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, is focused on five districts of the East and South Eastern Coastal Plain Zone (ESECPZ) such as Puri, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda and Nayagarh, spread across a 290 km long coastal belt along the Bay of Bengal.

Characterised by a hot and humid tropical climate, the region receives an average annual rainfall of 1,450 mm, with temperature ranging from an average winter low of 11.5 degree Celsius to summer highs of 39 degree Celsius.