Urban Afforestation and Heat Stress Mitigation: A Geospatial Assessment of the UPVAN Scheme in Gomtinagar, Lucknow

The rapid urbanization in Lucknow especially in the congested residential quarters like Gomati Nagar has enhanced the urban heat stress. To counter the issue, the Government of Uttar Pradesh introduced the UPVAN Scheme to develop urban afforestation with mini-forest plantations, such as the Miyawaki-based ones. This paper examines the suitability of the UPVAN Scheme to reduce the heat stress in Gomati Nagar, 2019-2024 based on secondary data sources. The analysis combines governmental reports, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Land Surface Temperature (LST) and academic literature related to it. The results show that vegetation cover is increasing moderately, and the localized decrease of surface temperature of 0.5degC to 1.0degC in the regions of new plantations. Nevertheless, the heat stress on the neighborhood scale has not yet been significantly reduced because of its small area coverage, and also because the vegetation has not reached its maturity. The research supports the potential of the UPVAN Scheme as an urban heat mitigation tool by nature and recommends the need to make the implementation persistent, selective of sites, and conduct geospatial monitoring over long periods.