Tesi sul tema "Urban heat stress"

Hitzestress beeinflusst nicht nur das Wohlbefinden, sondern vor allem auch die menschliche Gesundheit. Während Hitzestress im Außenraum bereits detailliert untersucht wurde, gibt es nur wenige Studien, welche sich mit thermischen Belastungen im Innenraum befassen. Dabei hält sich die Bevölkerung der Industriestaaten im Durchschnitt durchschnittlich 90 % des Tages im Innenraum auf. Analysen der klimatischen Bedingungen im Innenraum sind essenziell, um zugrundeliegende Prozesse zu verstehen, die Auswirkungen auf den Menschen zu erfassen und passende Anpassungsstrategien entwickeln zu können. Ziel der Arbeit ist es daher, verschiedene Innenraumklimata zu untersuchen und zu bewerten. Zur Untersuchung ihrer Charakteristika wurden Räume ohne Nutzerverhalten innerhalb eines Gebäudes bemessen und analysiert. Die Ergebnisse wurden dann verwendet, um ein detailliertes Innenraummesssystem zu entwickelt und an verschiedenen Standorten in Berlin aufzubauen. Die erhobenen Daten wurden dann verwendet, um die Variabilität von Hitzestress im Innenraum zeitlich und räumlich anhand des UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index) zu untersuchen. Den Abschluss bilden umfangreiche Analysen zu den Einflüssen von Innenraum- und Außenraumtemperaturen auf die Mortalität mittels Generalisierter Additiver Modelle (GAM). Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Hitzestress im Innenraum eine ernstzunehmende Gefahr darstellt. Alle Untersuchungsräume weisen hohe thermische Belastungen auf. UTCI Werte im Innenraum schwanken innerhalb eines Gebäudes und weisen im Vergleich zum Außenraum sehr hohe Belastungswerte während der Nacht auf. Die höchsten Werte wurden in modernen Gebäuden mit großen Fensterflächen ermittelt. Bezüglich der unterschiedlichen Einflussfaktoren auf das Innenraumklima konnte das Außenklima als wichtigste Einflussgröße bestätigt werden. Des Weiteren zeigt sich, dass die Innenraumtemperatur im Vergleich zur Außenraumtemperatur ein ebenso guter Prädiktor für Mortalität ist.
Heat stress influences not only the comfort of humans but also human health. Heat stress in outdoor environments has been investigated extensively, whereas only a few studies have focused on indoor environments. People in industrialized countries spend approximately 90 % of their day in confined spaces. Analyses of indoor climatic conditions are essential to understanding the underlying processes, determining the impacts on humans and developing appropriate adaptation measures. The aim of this work is to investigate and assess different indoor climates and provide a valuable contribution to future research questions. To analyze indoor climate characteristics or, rather, the influence of different meteorological parameters, the indoor climate in four rooms in one building without user behavior was measured and examined. The results were used to establish a detailed indoor measurement system at different study sites distributed over Berlin. The gathered data were then used to assess indoor heat stress variability on a temporal and spatial scale using the UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index). Finally, an extensive analysis of the influence of indoor climate and outdoor climate on mortality was conducted by applying generalized additive models (GAM). The results indicate that indoor heat stress is a severe threat. All study rooms experienced high thermal loads, regardless of the building type they were located in or their location within the building. Indoor UTCI values varied within buildings and further exhibited very high heat stress levels during night compared to outdoors. The highest values were measured in modern buildings with a high percentage of windows. Among the different driving factors of indoor climate, outdoor climate was confirmed to have the highest impact. Moreover, this thesis shows that indoor air temperature is an equally good predictor of mortality compared to outdoor climate.

This thesis focuses on one of the emerging research topics within the field of urban morphology that investigates how the concept of resilience, which has recently be-come a buzzword very favored to address the complexity and future uncertainty in cities, can be integrated into the study of urban form, as the raw material of urban de-sign and a key element that can guide cities towards more sustainable trajectories. More specifically, the thesis tackles some of the theoretical and methodological challenges for integrating resilience thinking into urban morphology, where two main re-search gaps have been addressed. The first, is the need to understand the core meaning of resilience in urban morphology and systematically examine its underlying politics (e.g. resilience of/through what? To what? For whom? How? When? Where?) so that it can be effectively operationalized. The second is the need to support urban planning and design decisions with tools and methods that provide an improved understanding of the impact of urban form on urban resilience to different stresses and shocks. In particular, the thesis, through the use of immaterial technology (e.g. Geographical Information Systems, machine learning and remote sensing techniques), focuses on improving and developing quantitative methods to better understand the impact of urban form on urban resilience to heat stress, as one of the most pressing challenges in cities nowadays that has been demonstrated to be exacerbated by urban form. And assessing their applicability in growing contemporary cities in arid areas, as the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and where little research has been conducted. At the core of these methods are the typomorphological classifications, which have been demonstrated to be powerful descriptive-analytical as well as normative/prescriptive means of understanding and designing cities.
abstractita

Ambient temperatures have risen over the past few decades and are expected to increase even further due to climate change impacts. Extreme temperatures, accompanied by high humidity levels, will exacerbate occupational heat stress, heat related illnesses and mortality amongst vulnerable groups, particularly among outdoor workers in developing countries in the tropics. In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, a large portion of the population work outdoors in the informal sector as street vendors (hawkers) due to a lack of employment opportunities. These hawkers spend long hours in the sun or under makeshift sheds with poorly developed adaptation strategies, and no access to cooling systems both at work and at home. This mixed method study, conducted during the summer of 2015, explored heat exposure and adaptation strategies of informal street vendors in Bulawayo. Study participants were exposed to temperatures above 38°C during heat wave events and they were unable to cool down effectively at night due to the condition of their housing. Focus group discussions with health professionals and policy makers identified a lack of policies, programs and resources for heat prevention at local authority and national levels. It was recommended that the Zimbabwe government develop heat prevention policies and strategies in its National Climate Change Strategy and embrace community-based adaptation responses that will address heat related health impacts, particularly amongst people that work in the informal sector, who are deemed most vulnerable.

Les zones urbaines sont les principaux lieux de résidence des personnes et sont vulnérables aux conditions météorologiques exaspérantes telles que le stress thermique. Les périodes de vagues de chaleur se reproduisent de plus en plus dans l'atmosphère actuelle, et elles sont connues pour constituer une menace sérieuse et majeure pour la santé des êtres humains partout dans le monde. Les îlots de chaleur urbains et les canicules augmentent les risques thermiques en zone urbaine et la vulnérabilité de la population urbaine. L'augmentation du nombre de vagues de chaleur dans les zones urbaines est devenue une préoccupation importante en raison de ses effets néfastes sur la santé humaine et les activités économiques. L'objectif de ce travail est d'identifier la sensibilité du confort thermique et de leurs variables d'action, la modélisation des contraintes thermiques à l'aide des variables météorologiques les plus influentes, l'identification des facteurs de risque et de mettre en évidence la corrélation des tendances météorologiques et des paramètres influents, les solutions d'atténuation de la chaleur stress et aide mathématique à la prise de décision. Plusieurs techniques d'apprentissage automatique et profond ont été utilisées pour la modélisation dynamique du système du confort thermique. Des résultats optimisés sont obtenus à partir du modèle Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) qui est utilisé pour le développement d'un outil de simulation web permettant aux habitants d'évaluer leur niveau de confort en fonction des conditions météorologiques. Une carte d'indice de vulnérabilité à la chaleur a été développée pour indiquer la vulnérabilité des occupants en tenant compte de différents aspects dans une ville de taille moyenne tels que la planification, les espaces verts, la densité, l'énergie, la qualité de l'air, les plans d'eau et les épisodes de chaleur extrême. Les résultats obtenus ont mis en évidence que la mauvaise qualité de l'air et les épisodes de chaleur sont interdépendants, ce qui attire l'attention des décideurs à prendre des mesures supplémentaires dans les lieux à haut risque. La surveillance sur le terrain est effectuée à l'aide de capteurs et d'une caméra thermique pour mesurer les variables pertinentes et prendre des mesures pour minimiser les effets du stress thermique. Au final, des méthodes d'aide à la décision multicritères ont été appliquées pour le développement initial d'un outil d'aide à la décision pour la sélection d'interventions de résilience thermique urbaine qui permet une utilisation flexible, dynamique et prédictive pour les concepteurs et les utilisateurs
Urban areas are the prevalent places of residence for people and are vulnerable to exasperating weather conditions such as heat stress. Periods of heat waves are increasingly reoccurring in the current atmosphere, and they are known to pose a serious and major threat to the health of human beings all over the world. Urban heat islands and heat waves increase thermal risks in urban areas and the vulnerability of the urban population. The increase in the number of heat episodes in urban areas has become a significant concern due to its adverse effects on human health and economic activities. The objective of this work is to identify the sensitivity of thermal comfort and their action variables, the modeling of thermal stress using the most influential meteorological variables, the identification of risk factors and highlight the correlation of meteorological trends and influencing parameters, solutions for mitigating heat stress and mathematical support for decision-making. Several machine and deep learning techniques were used for the system dynamic modeling of the thermal comfort. Optimized results are obtained from the Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) model which is used for the development of a web simulation tool allowing the inhabitants to evaluate their level of comfort according to the weather conditions. A heat vulnerability index map has been developed to indicate the vulnerability of occupants considering different aspects in a medium-sized city such as planning, green space, density, energy, quality air, water bodies and extreme heat events. The obtained results highlighted that poor air quality and heat events are interrelated, which draws the attention for decision-makers to intervene the additional measures in high-risk places. Field monitoring is carried out using sensors and a thermal camera to measure relevant variables and take action to minimize the effects of heat stress. In Last, multi-criteria decision-making methods were applied for the initial development of a decision support tool for the selection of urban heat resilience interventions that allows flexible, dynamic, and predictive use for designers and the users

Im Rahmen des globalen Klimawandels werden für Mitteleuropa vermehrt klimatische Extremereignisse prognostiziert, wozu auch Hitzewellen gehören. In Ballungsräumen kommt zusätzlich zur globalen Komponente durch das Entstehen der städtischen Wärmeinsel noch eine lokale hinzu. Besonders die Gesundheit älterer Personen ist dabei gefährdet. Vor dem Hintergrund des demographischen Wandels und der fortschreitenden Urbanisierung auf der Erde wird die Zahl der unter Risiko stehenden Personen zukünftig ansteigen. Um die Entwicklungen für den Raum Berlin-Brandenburg abschätzen zu können, wird über einen Zeitraum von 17 Jahren (1990 bis 2006) zunächst einmal die Vulnerabilität in der Vergangenheit untersucht. Anhand von Messreihen an sechs über den Raum verteilten Stationen wird das Auftreten von thermischer Belastung durch Hitze festgestellt. Dabei finden drei in der Literatur verbreitet zum Einsatz kommende Analysemethoden Anwendung: das 95er Perzentil, die Regression sowie die Gefühlte Temperatur. Für die Erklärung der Hitzebelastung über das 95er Perzentil wird ein gleitendes Verfahren eingeführt. Unter der Berücksichtigung aller drei Analysemethoden erfolgt die Bewertung dreiwöchiger Perioden hinsichtlich ihrer thermischen Belastung. Die Einführung des Systems der Perioden-Belastungspunkte (PBP) ermöglicht die Identifikation der am stärksten belasteten Periode eines jeden Jahres. Die Perioden der Jahre 1993, 1994 und 1997 sowie 2003 und 2006 werden im Anschluss zunächst nach Witterung und klimatischen Elementen untersucht, anschließend hinsichtlich der aufgetretenen Mortalität; hierbei spielen zum einen die Bevölkerungseigenschaften ''Alter'' und ''Geschlecht'' eine Rolle, zum anderen das räumliche Auftreten auf kommunaler Ebene. Abschließend wird das in den jeweiligen Perioden entstehende Muster der Mortalität mit dem Grad der Versiegelung bzw. dem Anteil der über-65-Jährigen abgeglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass während thermisch stark belasteten Perioden bei den unter-50-Jährigen die Männer stärker als Frauen gefährdet sind; dieses Verhältnis kehrt sich in der Altersklasse über 50 um. In der räumlichen Analyse wird deutlich, dass sich mit zunehmender Belastung ein hoher Versiegelungsgrad als Risikofaktor darstellt. Bei weniger belastenden Situationen stehen Senioren dagegen gerade in Räumen mit geringer Versiegelung stärker unter Risiko. Künftige Studien sollten auf die Todesursachen eingehen und zusätzliche Risikofaktoren berücksichtigen. Auf dieser Basis können dann einerseits Interventionsmaßnahmen ausgearbeitet als auch Szenarien zukünftiger Entwicklungen valide aufgebaut werden.
In central Europe, global climate change will increase the number of meteorological extreme events, including thermal stress caused by heat. In metropolitan areas the effect of urban heat island is added. As the elderly population is vulnerable to high temperatures they are especially at risk. Considering urbanization and demographic changes the number of people under risk will further increase. To estimate future developments in vulnerability it is necessary to know the present ones. Therefore, 17 years between 1990 and 2006 are investigated. At first, data of six weather stations within the area of Berlin-Brandenburg are examined. In these climatic time series the occurrence of thermal stress is determined with three different methods – 95 percentile, regression, and the index of perceived temperature. The 95 percentile is adjusted to a moving mode. Using all three methods, periods of three weeks are evaluated concerning heat stress. To identify the most loaded period of each year the system of ''points of period heat load'' (PBP) is introduced. The periods of the years 1993, 1994, and 1997 as well as 2003 and 2006 were chosen to be examined in more detail. Atmospheric conditions and climatic elements are described first. Then the observed mortality is evaluated concerning age and sex as well as the spatial distribution on municipal level. The resulting pattern is compared with that of the level of sealing and with that of the proportion of people aged 65 and more. Results show that up to an age of 50 years periods with heat stress affect more men than women. Above this age the ratio of sex is reciprocal. The spatial analysis reveals that a high level of sealing is a risk factor especially during very strong heat load, while during periods with less strong heat load elderly people are more endangered living in a lower level of sealing. Future studies should examine the causes of death as well as further risk factors. This will build the basis for detailed intervention plans and scenarios of upcoming developments.

La végétation influence le climat urbain de l'échelle de la rue à l'échelle de la ville. Les arbres de rue, en particulier, constituent une technique alternative à l'atténuation de l'îlot de chaleur urbain et à l'amélioration du confort thermique. Ils modifient les bilans radiatif et énergétique en interceptant et absorbant une partie du rayonnement solaire incident, créent de l'ombre, augmentent l'humidité relative de l'air par évapotranspiration et modifient également les écoulements d'air dans le canyon urbain. Le modèle TEB est un des rares modèles de climat urbain prenant en compte la végétation. Il intègre des paramétrisations dédiées à la végétation basse dans les canyons urbains et aux toitures végétalisées, et peut représenter les interactions de petite échelle entre les surfaces minéralisées, la végétation et l'atmosphère. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, une paramétrisation a été implémentée dans TEB pour modéliser les aspects radiatifs, énergétiques et aérauliques liés à la présence d'arbres de rue dans l'espace urbain. Une canopée arborée explicite a été intégrée dans le canyon urbain au-dessus de la chaussée et des jardins. Le modèle ISBA est utilisé pour représenter les strates haute et basse de la végétation. Les calculs radiatifs du modèle TEB ont été modifiés afin de prendre en compte les effets d'ombrage et d'atténuation du rayonnement solaire et IR liés à la présence de cette canopée, et les interactions IR entre l'ensemble des éléments urbains du canyon. Une évaluation du bilan radiatif a été réalisée grâce à une comparaison avec le modèle architectural d'ensoleillement à haute résolution SOLENE, sur la base de simulations de canyons urbains idéalisés et pour différentes configurations d'arbres de rue. Les flux d'énergie calculés par ISBA selon l'approche \textit{big leaf} ont ensuite été désagrégés entre les contributions de la végétation haute et basse. Les flux des arbres ont été redistribués sur la verticale de façon à modifier le microclimat à hauteur réaliste vis-à-vis de la position de la canopée arborée. Un effet de traînée lié à la présence de la canopée arborée a été intégré dans les équations de quantité de mouvement et d'énergie cinétique turbulente résolues par la paramétrisation de couche limite de surface de TEB pour le volume d'air au sein du canyon. Une évaluation en cas réel de cette nouvelle version du modèle a été conduite sur un site expérimental, à savoir une cour semi-fermée aménagée avec des arbres et où ont été collectées différentes variables microclimatiques. Les résultats montrent des améliorations considérables quant à la modélisation des températures de surface des murs et du sol, de la température de l'air sous la canopée arborée, et de la vitesse du vent. Ces implémentations visent à simuler de façon plus réaliste différentes stratégies d'adaptation par la végétalisation et d'évaluer leurs performances sur l'atténuation de l'îlot de chaleur urbain, le confort thermique, et la consommation d'énergie des bâtiments
Vegetation influences the urban climate, from road to city scale. Street trees implementation is an alternative technic to reduce the urban heat island and to improve the thermal comfort. They modify the radiative and energetic balances by intercepting and absorbing a part of the solar radiation, provide shade, increase the humidity with evapotranspiration, and alter the air flow in the urban canyons. The TEB model is one the rare urban climate models taking into account vegetation. It integrates parameterizations dedicated to low vegetation and green roofs. It can represent the small-scale interactions between mineral surfaces, vegetation and the atmosphere. During this PhD thesis, a parameterization has been developed to model the radiative, energetic and dynamical effects of street and garden trees in urban spaces. An explicit tree canopy has been integrated into the urban canyon, above gardens but also streets. The ISBA vegetation scheme has been used, and included in TEB, to represent these vegetated entities (both low and high strata). The radiative computations of the TEB model have been improved in order to represent the shading and attenuation of radiation due to trees, as well as all the infra-red interactions between the urban elements. An evaluation of the radiative budget has been done thanks to a comparison with the high- resolution architectural model SOLENE, using numerous different urban canyons with several layouts of tree canopies. Then, the energy fluxes computed by ISBA have been dis- aggregated between contributions from high and low vegetation. Fluxes allocated to the trees have been redistributed on the vertical in order to alter the microclimate at realistic height, i.e. respecting the position of the tree crown. A specific drag force of trees on the airflow is simulated. An evaluation has been done on a real experimental site in a canyon-like courtyard with trees where several microclimatic data were collected. The results show an impressive improvement of the surface temperatures of walls and ground, air temperature and wind speed. In the future, these implementations will allow to simulate more realistically several adaptation strategies using greening at city scale, and to evaluate their efficiency in terms of urban heat island mitigation, improvement of human comfort and building energy consumption

Urban Bioethics
M.A.
African American women have the highest rates of hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality rates related to CVD of all ethnic and racial groups in America. Understanding the factors contributing to these health disparities will be crucial to closing the gap in health outcomes. This thesis proposes that stressors and stress coping strategies are contributing as independent risk factors for CVD, thus leading to health disparities. Studies have shown that stress has a direct relationship to neuroendocrine processes in the body leading to elevated blood pressures and increased inflammation. Examining common stress factors among African American women and developing strategies to help relieve the burden of these stress factors will be an important ethical step toward eliminating the CVD health disparity between African American women and other ethnic groups. In addition, developing systemic support for coping with stress through health systems and health centers will be imperative for improving CVD health outcomes and agency among African American women.
Temple University--Theses

Geographic space is the large-scale and continuous space that encircles the earth and in which human activities occur. The study of geographic space has drawn attention in many different fields and has been applied in a variety of studies, including those on cognition, urban planning and navigation systems. A scaling property indicates that small objects are far more numerous than large ones, i.e., the size of objects is extremely diverse. The concept of scaling resembles a fractal in geometric terms and a power law distribution from the perspective of statistical physics, but it is different from both in terms of application. Combining the concepts of geographic space and scaling, this thesis proposes the concept of the scaling of geographic space, which refers to the phenomenon that small geographic objects or representations are far more numerous than large ones. From the perspectives of statistics and mathematics, the scaling of geographic space can be characterized by the fact that the sizes of geographic objects follow heavy-tailed distributions, i.e., the special non-linear relationships between variables and their probability. In this thesis, the heavy-tailed distributions refer to the power law, lognormal, exponential, power law with an exponential cutoff and stretched exponential. The first three are the basic distributions, and the last two are their degenerate versions. If the measurements of the geographic objects follow a heavy-tailed distribution, then their mean value can divide them into two groups: large ones (a low percentage) whose values lie above the mean value and small ones (a high percentage) whose values lie below. This regularity is termed as the head/tail division rule. That is, a two-tier hierarchical structure can be obtained naturally. The scaling property of geographic space and the head/tail division rule are verified at city and country levels from the perspectives of axial lines and blocks, respectively. In the study of geographic space, the most important concept is geographic representation, which represents or partitions a large-scale geographic space into numerous small pieces, e.g., vector and raster data in conventional spatial analysis. In a different context, each geographic representation possesses different geographic implications and a rich partial knowledge of space. The emergence of geographic information science (GIScience) and volunteered geographic information (VGI) greatly enable the generation of new types of geographic representations. In addition to the old axial lines, this thesis generated several types of representations of geographic space: (a) blocks that were decomposed from road segments, each of which forms a minimum cycle such as city and field blocks (b) natural streets that were generated from street center lines using the Gestalt principle of good continuity; (c) new axial lines that were defined as the least number of individual straight line segments mutually intersected along natural streets; (d) the fewest-turn map direction (route) that possesses the hierarchical structure and indicates the scaling of geographic space; (e) spatio-temporal clusters of the stop points in the trajectories of large-scale floating car data. Based on the generated geographic representations, this thesis further applies the scaling property and the head/tail division rule to these representations for urban studies. First, all of the above geographic representations demonstrate the scaling property, which indicates the scaling of geographic space. Furthermore, the head/tail division rule performs well in obtaining the hierarchical structures of geographic objects. In a sense, the scaling property reveals the hierarchical structures of geographic objects. According to the above analysis and findings, several urban studies are performed as follows: (1) generate new axial lines based on natural streets for a better understanding of urban morphologies; (2) compute the fewest-turn and shortest map direction; (3) identify urban sprawl patches based on the statistics of blocks and natural cities; (4) categorize spatio-temporal clusters of long stop points into hotspots and traffic jams; and (5) perform an across-country comparison of hierarchical spatial structures. The overall contribution of this thesis is first to propose the principle of scaling of geographic space as well as the head/tail division rule, which provide a new and quantitative perspective to efficiently reduce the high degree of complexity and effectively solve the issues in urban studies. Several successful applications prove that the scaling of geographic space and the head/tail division rule are inspiring and can in fact be applied as a universal law, in particular, to urban studies and other fields. The data sets that were generated via an intensive geo-computation process are as large as hundreds of gigabytes and will be of great value to further data mining studies.

QC 20120301

Hägerstrand project entitled “GIS-based mobility information for sustainable urban planning and design”

Our direct environment affects our lives directly. Christopher Alexander saw that we are able to feel or see if an object or structure is natural through the characteristics of them. He also saw that we generally feel better near these living, natural structures as it more closely resembles ourselves. Our bodies and our surroundings are made up of far more smaller than large things. When structures follow this pattern they are considered to be more natural, and when they move away from this pattern they are considered to be less natural and thus often boring or ugly. This scaling law is used to analyse the complex networks within cities. By analysing underlying structures instead of direct geometry it becomes possible to identify how living they are.This study applies these theories to analyse urban morphology within different cities. By identifying living structure within cities comparisons can be made between different types of cities. Specifically artificial and historical cities are analysed as they are counterparts in livingness. Following the identification of the living structure within these different types of cities an assessment can be made on what kind of an effect this has on our wellbeing based on Alexander’s theory. To see how living structure evolves over time a second analysis is performed which compares a city with its own evolution through time.Firstly natural cities and natural streets are identified in a bottom up approach based on the underlying structures of OpenStreetMap road data. Thereafter historical cities are compared with artificial cities because historical cities generally have living structure while artificial cities lack this. Then the developments of a historic city are identified and compared temporally. This research finds that current usage of concrete, steel and glass combined with very fast development speeds is detrimental to living structure within cities currently. Newer city developments should be performed in symbiosis with older city structures and the structure of the development should inhibit scaling as well as the buildings themselves. It is not sufficient to look only at geometry when managing cities, the importance of the fractal geometry, which is initially invisible must not be underestimated.

碩士
國立臺北大學
都市計劃研究所
103
Heatwaves are predicted to increase in frequency (quantity) and intensity as a consequence of climate change. Global climate change may intensify urban heat islands with implications for local heat stress, morbidity and public health. In this study, according to the risk assessment framework of the Fifth Assessment Report of IPCC, we analyzed the patterns of risks in Taipei Basin area under heatwaves. We used Landsat TM satellite images at July 21, 2007, to convert land surface temperature. Then we estimated the heat index of the study area with the regression of land surface temperature and the data of meteorological station. We also proposed a risk of heat assessment framework under heat stress, including exposure and vulnerability indicators. Spatial interpolation is used to calculate the duration and intensity of extreme heat events, and further, the data was divided into sensitivity indicators to assess the vulnerable population and the adaptive capacity indicators to evaluate the extent to which the heat impact was reduced. Finally, we used the data of outpatients of heat-related diseases from the National Health Insurance Database to analyze the relationships between socio-economic factors and heat-related morbidity in Taipei Basin area. To better understand the patterns of the risks of extreme heat events, we suggested some improvements to the area which were relatively lack of medical resources. Our results suggest that (a) the outpatients of heat-related diseases had a significant positive correlation with the heat index in Taipei Basin area under extreme heat events; (b) there were four districts in high risks of heat stress, including Sanchong, Datong, Wanhua and Yonghe District; (c) different from some prior studies, the indicators in this study reflected the empirical risks of the outpatients of heat-related diseases during extreme heat events. The results of the study could be used to help modifing the urban development policies, and finally reached a just, healthy, security and sustainable society.

abstract: 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.
Dissertation/Thesis
Ph.D. Sustainability 2013

碩士
國立臺北大學
都市計劃研究所
105
While facing to the challenge of the global climate change, the appearance of the extreme weather strikes the eco-system and the living environment of human being. In this study, we discussed the impact of heat events to the morbidity of heat related diseases. Based on previous works from other researchers, we set suitable definition of heat event for Taipei urban region and utilized multiple regression and overlay analysis to analyze the relationship between heat events and he morbidity of heat related diseases. According to the results, we found that as high-sensitive group to heat events, the population of aborigines and the economic ability both are main factors of the morbidity of heat related diseases in urban region. However, natural environment related factors are dominant in rural region. With the longer duration of heat events, the morbidity of heat related diseases will be higher, whereas the coverage of green space and the education level are two factors that can improve the adaptation capacity of rural region. Additionally, we found that single approach to evaluate the heat vulnerability is not able to reflect the actual encounter data in regions with different social economical structures. To establish suitable models of heat vulnerability evaluation, weather characteristics, economical condition, culture of local regions should be analyzed. Base on the analysis results of this study, following advises will be proposed in response heat events: improve the health care system for high-sensitive group in Taipei urban region, raise concern to living environment of aborigines, establish warming systems for heat events according to local conditions, increase the crisis awareness to heat events in rural regions, and improve the medical and health care resources in rural regions.

Faculty of Sicence, Charles University Aleš Urban, Praha 2012 Effects of temperature extremes on hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases The thesis compares differences in the impacts of warm and cold days on both excess mortality and hospitalizations for individual cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in Prague and a selected rural region (southern Bohemia - JČ) consisting of the Jihočeský kraj and Vysočina districts in the period 1994- 2009. Population size and age structure are similar in the two regions. The differences are compared between selected population groups (men and women; < 65 and 65+ years). Value of the 90% (10%) percentile of daily mean air temperature in summer (winter) during the period were used for the definition of warm (cold) days for each region separately. The excess mortality and hospitalizations were determined as the difference from standardized daily counts of death and hospital admissions, adjusted for epidemics of influenza/acute respiratory infections, long-term changes, and for annual and weekly cycles of mortality and hospitalizations. Generally higher relative excess CVD mortality on warm days was identified in Prague, while for cold days we found higher excess mortality in south Bohemia. In contrast to mortality, weak excess CVD hospitalizations were observed for both...