Download or read book Vulnerability to Heat Stress in Urban Areas written by Wen-Ching Chuang and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extreme hot-weather events have become life-threatening natural phenomena in many cities around the world, and the health impacts of excessive heat are expected to increase with climate change (Huang et al. 2011; Knowlton et al. 2007; Meehl and Tebaldi 2004; Patz 2005). Heat waves will likely have the worst health impacts in urban areas, where large numbers of vulnerable people reside and where local-scale urban heat island effects (UHI) retard and reduce nighttime cooling. This dissertation presents three empirical case studies that were conducted to advance our understanding of human vulnerability to heat in coupled human-natural systems. Using vulnerability theory as a framework, I analyzed how various social and environmental components of a system interact to exacerbate or mitigate heat impacts on human health, with the goal of contributing to the conceptualization of human vulnerability to heat. The studies: 1) compared the relationship between temperature and health outcomes in Chicago and Phoenix; 2) compared a map derived from a theoretical generic index of vulnerability to heat with a map derived from actual heat-related hospitalizations in Phoenix; and 3) used geospatial information on health data at two areal units to identify the hot spots for two heat health outcomes in Phoenix. The results show a 10-degree Celsius difference in the threshold temperatures at which heat-stress calls in Phoenix and Chicago are likely to increase drastically, and that Chicago is likely to be more sensitive to climate change than Phoenix. I also found that heat-vulnerability indices are sensitive to scale, measurement, and context, and that cities will need to incorporate place-based factors to increase the usefulness of vulnerability indices and mapping to decision making. Finally, I found that identification of geographical hot-spot of heat-related illness depends on the type of data used, scale of measurement, and normalization procedures. I recommend using multiple datasets and different approaches to spatial analysis to overcome this limitation and help decision makers develop effective intervention strategies.
Download or read book Assessing Vulnerability to Heat Stress in Urban Areas written by Tanja Wolf and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing mortality related to periods of hot weather is a direct health impact from a warming and more variable climate. Adverse health impacts of heat stress are preventable. To spatially assess vulnerability is useful to prioritize where to take action first. This work describes the development and testing of a vulnerability index to assess hot spots of vulnerability to heat stress in the urban area of Greater London. Therefore, routine data on a high spatial resolution and representing the risk factors as identified in the literature are mapped. With Principal Component Analysis the most relevant of these indicators are composed to a vulnerability index. To test the performance of the vulnerability index, daily data on temperature and spatial data on daily mortality and ambulance callout are used in a Poission regression model. The work shows that it is possible to model hot spots of vulnerability in terms of increased mortality and a higher number of ambulance callouts. The results encourage further work on hot spot analysis to better target intervention measures, but also to look into risk perception and decomposing inequalities.
Download or read book Integrated Assessment of Vulnerability to Heat Stress in Urban Areas written by Tanja Wolf and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Global Environmental Assessments written by Ronald Bruce Mitchell and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comparative analysis of global environmental assessments shows the importance of policy salience, scientific credibility, and social and political legitimacy in determining the influence of scientific assessments on global environmental policy.
Download or read book Urban Overheating Heat Mitigation and the Impact on Health written by Nasrin Aghamohammadi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-10-05 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book reviews and reports the recent progress and knowledge on the specific impact of current and projected urban overheating as well as of the urban mitigation technologies on mortality and morbidity and urban vulnerability. It presents recent data and developments on the topic reported by some of the more distinguished researchers in this area. In parallel, it discusses new findings related to the characteristics and the magnitude of urban overheating and reports and analyzes the recent knowledge on the synergies between urban heat island and heatwaves. This book helps to advance our understanding on the interaction between Urban Heat Island (UHI) and overheating as well as their impact on energy demand and public health globally. Exploring the interaction between UHI and energy consumption requires the understanding on the dynamics of UHI intensity and air pollution index in different land use and how such interactions may vary in different cities in the world. Moreover, this book focuses on different cities in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Asia, Spain, UK, and USA.
Download or read book Heat Stress Vulnerability as Predicted by Spatial Analysis of Remotely Sensed Imagery and Socioeconomic Data for Philadelphia PA written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania implemented an extreme heat-wave warning stystem in 1995 in response to elevated levels of heat-stress related illnesses and mortality (Kalkstein, 1995). The heat-wave warning system informs the entire city of Philadelphia, regardless of neighborhood or socio-economic status of forecasted heat waves that are to exceed 115° F for at least three hours or more during the coarse of a day. However, many researchers have studied the Urban Heat Island phenomenon over the years and have attributed the high percentage of industrial materials and the low percentage of green vegetation to rising temperatures (Lo et. al., 1997; Voogt and Oke 2003; Jenerett et. al., 2006). In addition, others have cited poorer, disenfranchised communities within urban areas as being more vulnerable to heat stress during the warm summer months due to some of the physical characteristics, such as industrial materials, of cities (Harlan et. al., 2006; Harlan et. al., 2007). This study analizes the spatial variability of surface temperatures and material types derived from spaceborne thermal infrared and spectral satellite imagery in addition to socio-economic data to locate areas of higher risk through spatial analysis and exploratory statistical analyses. The satellite imagery provides a snapshot in time during a hot summer day that provides us with the spatial variations of surface temperatures and the census data provides information on who lives within the hottest, or more stressful areas. The findings of this study shows that 22 of the 381 census tracks cluster together to form a likely area of higher vulnerability based on poverty levels, population densities, surface temperatures, old housing (pre 1960's), and green vegetation.
Download or read book Urban Overheating Progress on Mitigation Science and Engineering Applications written by Michele Zinzi and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The combination of global warming and urban sprawl is the origin of the most hazardous climate change effect detected at urban level: Urban Heat Island, representing the urban overheating respect to the countryside surrounding the city. This book includes 18 papers representing the state of the art of detection, assessment mitigation and adaption to urban overheating. Advanced methods, strategies and technologies are here analyzed including relevant issues as: the role of urban materials and fabrics on urban climate and their potential mitigation, the impact of greenery and vegetation to reduce urban temperatures and improve the thermal comfort, the role the urban geometry in the air temperature rise, the use of satellite and ground data to assess and quantify the urban overheating and develop mitigation solutions, calculation methods and application to predict and assess mitigation scenarios. The outcomes of the book are thus relevant for a wide multidisciplinary audience, including: environmental scientists and engineers, architect and urban planners, policy makers and students.
Download or read book Beating the Heat written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities in Asia and the Pacific are increasingly at risk of heat waves, which are expected to be more severe and persistent due to global warming. The urban poor are especially vulnerable to heat stress and associated health and productivity impacts as they often work outdoors and tend to live in overcrowded housing without adequate ventilation or cooling. This publication examines opportunities for countries to pursue pro-poor urban resilience initiatives to reduce the impacts of heat stress. It emphasizes the need for policies and investments to be based on long-term planning and actions at all scales: individual and household, neighborhood, and city.
Download or read book Location and Land Use written by William Alonso and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Heat Wave written by Eric Klinenberg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “compelling” story behind the 1995 Chicago weather disaster that killed hundreds—and what it revealed about our broken society (Boston Globe). On July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day in which the temperature would reach 106 degrees. The heat index—how the temperature actually feels on the body—would hit 126. When the heat wave broke a week later, city streets had buckled; records for electrical use were shattered; and power grids had failed, leaving residents without electricity for up to two days. By July 20, over seven hundred people had perished—twenty times the number of those struck down by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Heat waves kill more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. Until now, no one could explain either the overwhelming number or the heartbreaking manner of the deaths resulting from the 1995 Chicago heat wave. Meteorologists and medical scientists have been unable to account for the scale of the trauma, and political officials have puzzled over the sources of the city’s vulnerability. In Heat Wave, Eric Klinenberg takes us inside the anatomy of the metropolis to conduct what he calls a “social autopsy,” examining the social, political, and institutional organs of the city that made this urban disaster so much worse than it ought to have been. He investigates why some neighborhoods experienced greater mortality than others, how city government responded, and how journalists, scientists, and public officials reported and explained these events. Through years of fieldwork, interviews, and research, he uncovers the surprising and unsettling forms of social breakdown that contributed to this human catastrophe as hundreds died alone behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, community groups, and public agencies. As this incisive and gripping account demonstrates, the widening cracks in the social foundations of American cities made visible by the 1995 heat wave remain in play in America’s cities today—and we ignore them at our peril. Includes photos and a new preface on meeting the challenges of climate change in urban centers “Heat Wave is not so much a book about weather, as it is about the calamitous consequences of forgetting our fellow citizens. . . . A provocative, fascinating book, one that applies to much more than weather disasters.” —Chicago Sun-Times “It’s hard to put down Heat Wave without believing you’ve just read a tale of slow murder by public policy.” —Salon “A classic. I can’t recommend it enough.” —Chris Hayes
Download or read book Spatial Microsimulation A Reference Guide for Users written by Robert Tanton and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a practical guide on how to design, create and validate a spatial microsimulation model. These models are becoming more popular as academics and policy makers recognise the value of place in research and policy making. Recent spatial microsimulation models have been used to analyse health and social disadvantage for small areas; and to look at the effect of policy change for small areas. This provides a powerful analysis tool for researchers and policy makers. This book covers preparing the data for spatial microsimulation; a number of methods for both static and dynamic spatial microsimulation models; validation of the models to ensure the outputs are reasonable; and the future of spatial microsimulation. The book will be an essential handbook for any researcher or policy maker looking to design and create a spatial microsimulation model. This book will also be useful to those policy makers who are commissioning a spatial microsimulation model, or looking to commission work using a spatial microsimulation model, as it provides information on the different methods in a non-technical way.
Download or read book The Urban Heat Island written by Iain D. Stewart and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is an area of growing interest for many people studying the urban environment and local/global climate change. The UHI has been scientifically studied for 200 years and, although it is an apparently simple phenomenon, there is considerable confusion around the different types of UHI and their assessment. The Urban Heat Island—A Guidebook provides simple instructions for measuring and analysing the phenomenon, as well as greater context for defining the UHI and the impacts it can have. Readers will be empowered to work within a set of guidelines that enable direct comparison of UHI effects across diverse settings, while informing a wide range of climate mitigation and adaptation programs to modify human behaviour and the built form. This opens the door to true global assessments of local climate change in cities. Urban planning and design strategies can then be evaluated for their effectiveness at mitigating these changes. Covers both on-surface and near-surface, or canopy, measurements and impacts of Urban Heat Islands (UHI) Provides a set of best practices and guidelines for UHI observation and analysis Includes both conceptual overviews and practical instructions for a wide range of uses
Download or read book Successful Adaptation to Climate Change written by Susanne C. Moser and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does successful adaptation look like? This is a question we are frequently asked by planners, policy makers and other professionals charged with the task of developing and implementing adaptation strategies. While adaptation is increasingly recognized as an important climate risk management strategy, and on-the-ground adaptation planning activity is becoming more common-place, there is no clear guidance as to what success would look like, what to aim for and how to judge progress. This edited volume makes significant progress toward unpacking the question of successful adaptation, offering both scientifically informed and practice-relevant answers from various sectors and regions of the world. It brings together 18 chapters from leading experts within the field to present careful analyses of different cases and situations, questioning throughout commonly avowed truisms and unspoken assumptions that have pervaded climate adaptation science and practice to date. This book offers not one answer but demonstrates how the question of success in important ways is normative and context specific. It identifies the various dimensions of success, such as economic, political, institutional, ecological, and social, explores the tensions between them, and compiles encouraging evidence that resolutions can be found. The book appraises how climatic and non-climatic stressors play a role, what role science does and can play in adaptation decision making, and how trade-offs and other concerns and priorities shape adaptation planning and implementation on the ground. This is timely interdisciplinary text sheds light on key issues that arise in on-the-ground adaptation to climate change. It bridges the gap between science and practical application of successful adaptation strategies and will be of interest to both students, academics and practitioners.
Download or read book Urban Heat Stress and Mitigation Solutions written by Vincenzo Costanzo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-08 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the reader with an understanding of the impact that different morphologies, construction materials and green coverage solutions have on the urban microclimate, thus affecting the comfort conditions of urban inhabitants and the energy needs of buildings in urban areas. The book covers the latest approaches to energy and outdoor comfort measurement and modelling on an urban scale, and describes possible measures and strategies to mitigate the effects of the mutual interaction between urban settlements and local microclimate. Despite its relevance, only limited literature is currently devoted to appraising—from an engineering perspective—the intertwining relationships between urban geometry and fabrics, energy fluxes between buildings and their surroundings, outdoor microclimate conditions and building energy demands in urban areas. This book fills this gap by first discussing the physical processes that govern heat and mass transfer at an urban scale, while emphasizing the role played by different spatial arrangements, manmade materials and green infrastructures on the outdoor microclimate. The first chapters also address the implications of these factors on the outdoor comfort conditions experienced by pedestrians, and on the buildings’ energy demand for space heating and cooling. Then, based upon cutting-edge experimental activities and simulation work, this book demonstrates current and forthcoming adaptation and mitigation strategies to improve the urban microclimate and its impact on the built environment, such as cool materials, thermochromic and retroreflective finishing materials, and green infrastructures applied either at a building scale or at the urban scale. The effect of these solutions is demonstrated for different cities worldwide under a range of climate conditions. Finally, the book opens a wider perspective by introducing the basic elements that allow fuel poverty, raw materials consumption, and the principles of circular economy in the definition of a resilient urban settlement.
Download or read book Cities and Housing written by Richard F. Muth and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Handbook of Climate Change Resilience written by Walter Leal Filho and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-08-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate resilience, or the capacity of socio-ecological systems to adapt and upkeep their functions when facing physical-chemical stress, is a key feature of ecosystems and communities. As the risks and impacts of climate change become more intense and more visible, there is a need to foster a broader understanding of both the impacts of these disruptions to food, water, and energy supplies and to increase resilience at the national and local level. The Handbook of Climate Change Resilience comprises a diverse body of knowledge, united in the objective of building climate resilience in both the industralised and the developing world. This unique publication will assist scientists, decision-makers and community members to take action to make countries, regions and cities more resilient.
Download or read book Urban Climates written by T. R. Oke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban Climates is the first full synthesis of modern scientific and applied research on urban climates. The book begins with an outline of what constitutes an urban ecosystem. It develops a comprehensive terminology for the subject using scale and surface classification as key constructs. It explains the physical principles governing the creation of distinct urban climates, such as airflow around buildings, the heat island, precipitation modification and air pollution, and it then illustrates how this knowledge can be applied to moderate the undesirable consequences of urban development and help create more sustainable and resilient cities. With urban climate science now a fully-fledged field, this timely book fulfills the need to bring together the disparate parts of climate research on cities into a coherent framework. It is an ideal resource for students and researchers in fields such as climatology, urban hydrology, air quality, environmental engineering and urban design.
