Rural Cooling Needs Assessment towards Designing Community Cooling Hubs: Case Studies from Maharashtra, India

Kumar Biswajit Debnath, Xinfang Wang, Toby Peters, Sanskriti Menon, Satish Awate, Gaurang Patwardhan, Navneet Wadkar, Mahesh Patankar and Priyanka Shendage
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Kumar Biswajit Debnath: School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society (EGIS), Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
Xinfang Wang: School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Toby Peters: School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Sanskriti Menon: Centre for Environment Education (C.E.E.), Ahmedabad 380054, Gujarat, India
Satish Awate: Centre for Environment Education (C.E.E.), Ahmedabad 380054, Gujarat, India
Gaurang Patwardhan: Centre for Environment Education (C.E.E.), Ahmedabad 380054, Gujarat, India
Navneet Wadkar: Centre for Environment Education (C.E.E.), Ahmedabad 380054, Gujarat, India
Mahesh Patankar: MP Ensystems Advisory Pvt Ltd, Mumbai 400080, Maharashtra, India
Priyanka Shendage: MP Ensystems Advisory Pvt Ltd, Mumbai 400080, Maharashtra, India

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-19

Abstract: In a rapidly warming world, sustainable cooling is directly related to the protection of fresh and nutritious food, medicines, and the population from extreme heat for work conditions, the economic productivity of the working population, and income generation. This study aimed to understand how rural communities are meeting their nutrition, livelihood, health, living space, and mobility requirements regarding the role of cooling. We selected three villages as case studies in Maharashtra, India and conducted household surveys, in-depth interviews of key informants, focus group discussions (FGDs), and social mapping building typology study. The objective was to assess the rural community cooling to propose a community cooling hub (CCH) framework that could be economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable for the three villages. Our study showed that agriculture, dairy, buildings (domestic and commercial), and healthcare require cooling intervention in the studied communities. Based on the needs assessment for cooling, we proposed a CCH framework to provide cooling solutions in an integrated system for rural contexts.

Keywords: community cooling hub; rural community; cooling needs assessment; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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