The people living in the capital city Dhaka were in extreme discomfort due to severe heatwave for the last couple of days.
However, those living in the greener areas around the capital were living in a relatively cooler weather.
A large section of residential and commercial areas in Dhaka has turned into a “heat island” which has created this difference in the land surface temperature between Dhaka and the surrounding areas.
The highest difference in temperature is 7 degrees Celcius.
These were said in a research article ‘Changes in urbanisation and urban heat island effect in Dhaka city’ in Springer’s Theoretical and Applied Climatology in February 2022.
The article said the day and night temperature differences at the Dhaka city’s warmest location and the coolest point outside the city were nearly 7°C and 5°C, respectively.
It’s like when the temperature in Savar or Singair in Manikganj is 30°C, the temperature in Dhaka’s Tejgaon or Farmgate area at that time would be 37°C. At the same time, such difference in temperature is also seen inside Dhaka too.
For example, the temperature in the zoo and botanical garden areas in Mirpur is 5°C cooler than Gulshan at the warmest period of a day.
Shamsuddin Shahid, associate professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Mohammad Kamruzzaman, senior scientist at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), ASM Shanawaz Uddin of civil engineering department at Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology, Najeebullah Khan of Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water & Marine Sciences in Baluchistan and Abu Reza Md Towfiqul Islam of disaster management department at Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur conducted the research.
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Dhaka’s land surface temperature increases alarmingly, study finds
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Speaking to Prothom Alo on Sunday, Shamsuddin Shahid, who led the research, said the temperature in Dhaka has been rising fast for the last few decades. It is possible to bring the temperature down by several degrees simply by planting trees by the footpaths and on roofs and reclaiming the waterbodies which are turning into dumping yards.