Heat action plans: Why cities are not measuring micro climatic zones

In recent times, there have been heat waves in many parts of the country. Starting from the pioneering heat action plan of Ahmedabad city developed in 2013 by Ahmedabad municipal corporation, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar and National Research Development Corporation jointly by looking at heat related 800 excess deaths during the 2010 heat wave, National Disaster Management Authority has helped many state and cities to develop Heat Action Plans. Given cities constructing and layout as well as use of vehicles and air conditions and other heat emitting sources and heat absorbing black tar road etc some part of the city develop micro climatic zones which are as of now not measured in any city except a few such as Pune where the IMD major office is located. Unless we start measuring such micro climatic data from various areas of the city we may be missing vital information which will be useful for developing and finetuning city heat action plans for future. Good AWS cost ₹3-5 lakhs which is not a high price to pay for any city or town given the fact that it will provide vital weather information which may help to set up local heat alert thresholds and make the heat action plans more effective.