Conference on "Liveability in Cities: Focus on Cooling Action" at Bhubaneshwar, Odisha January 24, 2023

The Habitat team of CSE in collaboration with PilooMody College of Architecture (PMCA), organized a conference on ‘Liveability in Cities: Focus on Cooling Action’, on 24th January, 2023. The aim of the conference was to discuss on the issue of rising heat waves and strategies needed to combat it through better urban planning and designing. "The conference was attended by around 85 participants, consisting of  professionals, researchers, faculties, and students,  from the field of planning and architecture."

The welcome address was delivered by Prof. Dharitri Das, Principal, PMCA. The first session was on 'Urban cooling strategies: Setting the Big Picture' by Mr. Rajneesh Sareen, Programme Director, Sustainable Buildings and Habitat Programme, followed by the next session by Mitashi Singh explaining the various indicators and parameters that contribute to urban heat through an ongoing research in Pune. She shared evidence on the relationship of urban geometry and other parameters with heat with the participants. This was followed by a session on "Generating a climate conduciveness using Urban Landscape in Bhubaneswar" by Ar. Shankar Giri Assistant Professor, PMCA.

Two CSE publications titled ‘Mass Housing and Liveability: Mapping of the Ground Reality’ and ‘How Accessible are Low-income Settlements?’ were released by the experts followed by the presentations on it by Mitashi Singh and Anannya Das. These reports bring forward the issues of accessibility and liveability in cities and strategies needed to improve it.

The afternoon session started with a session on " Green infrastructure strategies for cooler cities" by Dr. Kajri Mishra, Dean, Xavier School of Human Settlements Bhubaneswar. This was followed by a session on "Cooling in buildings through maximizing passive potentials and district/low carbon cooling systems" by Mr. Sugeet Grover. The last of the sessions was taken by Dr. Sudha Panda, Professor, KIIT, SAP, Bhubaneswar on "Cooling strategies for affordable housing: Interventions at macro and micro level."

The panel discussion kicked off with several experts such as Dr Jayant Routray, Professor Emeritus, Asian Institute of Technology Bangkok; Mr. Rahu Das, Retd. Deputy Chief Architect, Govt. of Odisha; Prof. Raj Kunwar Nayak, Chairman, Indian Institute of Architects, Odisha Chapter; Sanghamitra Rath, accredited professional from Indian Green Building Council; Dr. Piyush Rout, Environmental Planner and Mr. OmpriyaPattnaik, Entrepreneur, PencilforChange and shared their knowledge and experience to develop different innovative approaches, combining these parameters into a feasible strategy and draw a roadmap for its implementation. The conference concluded with discussions by participants and vote of thanks from Ar. Debashreeta, Associate Professor, PMCA.