Road Concretisation and Urban Heat Island Intensification in Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad City Municipal Corporation Region: A Critical Assessment of Pavement Material, Surface Heat Storage, and Thermal Comfort Risk

Road concretisation in the SMKC region is not merely a road-engineering decision; it is an urban-climate and public-health decision. The available IMD baseline already shows high pre-monsoon temperatures, especially in April and May, and the reported 42.00°C maximum temperature on 17 May 2026 further demonstrates the region’s vulnerability to extreme hot-day exposure. Against this climatic background, large-scale ordinary concrete-road development may intensify near-road thermal stress if implemented without shade, permeability, reflective optimisation, tree-canopy protection, and microclimate monitoring. Pavement-related UHI studies confirm that road surfaces influence urban heating through albedo, thermal storage, permeability, moisture availability, and interaction with surrounding built form (Nwakaire et al., 2020; Qin, 2015; Santamouris, 2013). The scenario projection suggests that ordinary unmitigated road concretisation raises near-road annual average temperature by approximately 0.80°C by 2035. More critically, if a 42.00°C hot-day condition similar to 17 May 2026 occurs under moderate ordinary-concretisation conditions, the comparable near-road temperature may reach approximately 43.10°C by 2035. Under high-risk unshaded corridor conditions, the value may plausibly rise toward 43.80°C. These projected values are not official IMD forecasts; they are corridor-level thermal-risk estimates. Their significance lies in the fact that citizens experience heat not only through air temperature, but also through pavement radiation, surface heat storage, low wind movement, reduced evaporative cooling, and delayed night-time heat release. The proposed concrete-road footprint of 300397.00 sq. m. confirms that the intervention is large enough to require corridor-level thermal assessment, especially because the largest four corridors account for more than 61% of the estimated concrete surface area. The present study, therefore, concludes that the SMKC region should adopt a thermal-performance-based road policy. Concrete roads should be permitted only with integrated shade, permeable edges, water-sensitive drainage, low-glare high-albedo material selection, tree-canopy protection, and pedestrian thermal-comfort safeguards. A road that lasts longer should not make the city hotter; durable infrastructure must also be thermally responsible, public-health sensitive, and socially equitable.

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