Heat Death Associations with the built environment, social vulnerability and their interactions with rising temperature

Abstract

In an extreme heat event, people can go to air-conditioned public facilities if residential air-conditioning is not available. Residences that heat slowly may also mitigate health effects, particularly in neighborhoods with social vulnerability. We explored the contributions of social vulnerability and these infrastructures to heat mortality in Maricopa County and whether these relationships are sensitive to temperature. Using Poisson regression modeling with heat-related mortality as the outcome, we assessed the interaction of increasing temperature with social vulnerability, access to publicly available air conditioned space, home air conditioning and the thermal properties of residences. As temperatures increase, mortality from heat-related illness increases less in census tracts with more publicly accessible cooled spaces. Mortality from all internal causes of death did not have this association. Building thermal protection was not associated with mortality. Social vulnerability was still associated with mortality after adjusting for the infrastructure variables. To reduce heat-related mortality, the use of public cooled spaces might be expanded to target the most vulnerable.

Spatiotemporal analysis of regional socio-economic vulnerability change associated with heat risks in Canada

“…Extreme heat events and the associated excess mortality are worldwide phenomena that are occurring in the tropics (Yan, 2000), subtropics (Huang et al, 2010), and temperate climate zones, including Western Europe in 2003 (Filleul et al, 2006) and major cities in Canada in 2009 and 2010 (Bustinza et al, 2013; Kosatsky et al, 2012). In order to address related public health impacts, previous studies have estimated either the spatial or temporal variability of heat-related illness/mortality (Anderson and Bell, 2010; Eisenman et al, 2016; Hattis et al, 2012; Henderson et al, 2013; Hondula et al, 2012; Jones et al, 1982; Kovach et al, 2015; Laaidi et al, 2012; Rosenthal et al, 2014; Son et al, 2012a; Son et al, 2012b; Vaneckova et al, 2010), and developed indices to locate the heat-vulnerable populations (Reid et al, 2009; Reid et al, 2012; Rinner et al, 2010; Vescovi et al, 2005). …”

Índice de vulnerabilidade socioambiental: uma proposta metodológica utilizando o caso do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

“…Diversas definições sobre vulnerabilidade emergiram e são utilizadas em diferentes contextos disciplinares, quer relacionada a sustentabilidade 2 , aos riscos naturais e ambientais 3,4 , no contexto das mudanças climáticas 5,6 , quer nas áreas sociais 7 e econômicas 8 . Outra abordagem da vulnerabilidade de grande relevância é a verificada no contexto da saúde 9,10 . O conceito de vulnerabilidade é bem amplo, sendo desta forma adaptado para cada área de conhecimento 11 .…”

How urban characteristics affect vulnerability to heat and cold: a multi-country analysis

“…One explanation might be an association between economic development with features of urbanisation such as the urban heat island, but further studies, including individual-level socio-economic indicators, are needed to clarify this.The vulnerability of cities to climate change has motivated the development of city-level adaptation measures6,39 , among which urban planning and design including for instance cooling by greening and ventilation. Several studies have evaluated the modification effect of urban landscape characteristics on temperature-mortality association[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] . They used different neighbour-level indicators related to urban land use and land cover (e.g.…”