The Urban Heat Island effect is real and most of it is because of heat from fuels on roads and electricity. A policy change that could have impacted this would have been to encourage taller residential buildings rather than smaller independent houses. Taller buildings would provide similar residential space with space left over for gardens and lawns. Encouragement could have been provided by appropriately planning for amenities such as public transport, drinking water connections, waste water disposal, and electricity. Sadly, land ownership is a political issue and tall buildings mean less chances of corruption in two forms. One, it means fewer people come to government facilities for their work (one large building would mean only one permit from each department) and fewer chances of extra floors and sq ft legalisation. Sadly, only the rich can afford to take these benefits today, coupled with our love for individual houses meant that we remained underserved from our polity and civic amenities and would continue so.
N747
