Heat-related deaths in Adelaide, South Australia: Review of the literature and case findings – An Australian perspective

Herbst, Jonathon; Mason, Kerryn; Byard, Roger W.; Gilbert, John D.; Charlwood, Cheryl; Heath, Karen; Winskog, Calle; Langlois, Neil E. I.

doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2013.12.018

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…To the authors’ knowledge, this is only the second study in Australia to use coronial data to examine the effects of heatwaves on mortality. The first study described the characteristics of deaths during the 2009 heatwave in Adelaide 24. This study found that there was no age or sex difference between HRDs and non-HRDs, and that most HRDs were due to either cardiac (59%) and pulmonary (6%) diseases or a combination of the two.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Difference in the characteristics of mortality reports during a heatwave period: retrospective analysis comparing deaths during a heatwave in January 2014 with the same period a year earlier

et al. 2019

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ObjectivesTo describe the characteristics of deaths reported to the Coroners Court of Victoria (CCOV) during Victoria’s last heatwave (14–17 January 2014) and subsequent 4 days (18–21 January) using medicolegal data obtained from both the police investigation report and the pathologist’s report.Design, setting and participantsA single-jurisdiction population-based retrospective analysis of consecutive heat-related deaths (HRDs) reported to the CCOV between 14 and 21 January 2014 with a historical comparison group.Main outcome measuresDescriptive statistics were used to summarise case demographics, causes of death and the types of investigations performed. The cases from 2014 were subgrouped into HRD and non-HRD.ResultsOf the 222 cases during the study period in 2014, 94 (42.3%) were HRDs and 128 (57.7%) were non-HRDs. HRDs were significantly older than non-HRDs (70.5 years: SD=13.8 vs 61.0 years: SD=22.4, t(220)=3.60, p<0.001, 95% CI 4.3 to 14.6). The most common primary cause of death in HRDs was circulatory system disease (n=57, 60.6%), which was significantly higher when compared with non-HRDs (n=39, 30.5%; χ2=20.1, p<0.001, OR 3.5, 95% CI 2.0 to 6.2). HRDs required significantly greater toxicology investigation (89.4% (n=84) vs 71.9% (n=92); χ2=10.9, p<0.001, OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.54 to 7.03) and greater vitreous biochemistry testing (40.4% (n=38) vs 16.4% (n=21); χ2=16.0, p<0.001, OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.9 to 6.5).ConclusionsA heatwave places a significant burden on death investigation services. The inclusion of additional laboratory tests and more detailed circumstantial information are essential if the factors that contribute to HRDs are to be identified.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Difference in the characteristics of mortality reports during a heatwave period: retrospective analysis comparing deaths during a heatwave in January 2014 with the same period a year earlier

et al. 2019

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“…, impacts on urban ecology (e.g., Pickett et al 2008;Francis and Chadwick 2013), and increased mortality rates during heat waves (e.g., Laaidi et al 2011;Herbst et al 2014;Saha et al 2014). As such, it is important to be able to accurately forecast urban warming and other meteorological variables for cities where the majority of the world's population now lives.…”

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confidence: 99%

Key Conclusions of the First International Urban Land Surface Model Comparison Project

Best

Grimmond

2015

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

101

100

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The First International Urban Land Surface Model Comparison was designed to identify three aspects of the urban surface–atmosphere interactions: 1) the dominant physical processes, 2) the level of complexity required to model these, and 3) the parameter requirements for such a model. Offline simulations from 32 land surface schemes, with varying complexity, contributed to the comparison. Model results were analyzed within a framework of physical classifications and over four stages. The results show that the following are important urban processes: i) multiple reflections of shortwave radiation within street canyons; ii) reduction in the amount of visible sky from within the canyon, which impacts the net longwave radiation; iii) the contrast in surface temperatures between building roofs and street canyons; and iv) evaporation from vegetation. Models that use an appropriate bulk albedo based on multiple solar reflections, represent building roof surfaces separately from street canyons and include a representation of vegetation demonstrate more skill, but require parameter information on the albedo, height of the buildings relative to the width of the streets (height to width ratio), the fraction of building roofs compared to street canyons from a plan view (plan area fraction), and the fraction of the surface that is vegetated. These results, while based on a single site and less than 18 months of data, have implications for the future design of urban land surface models, the data that need to be measured in urban observational campaigns, and what needs to be included in initiatives for regional and global parameter databases.

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“…The heatwave service has combined high quality climate data and forecast temperatures in a manner that forecasts community impacts, improving the national dialogue with both the public and emergency services. Forecasts of Excess Heat Factor act as predictions of exposure (heatwave intensity) that predict human health impact, verified in multiple human health studies (Langlois et al 2013;Herbst et al 2014;Hatvani-Kovacs et al 2015;Scalley et al 2015;Nitschke et al 2016;Jegasothy et al 2017;Williams et al 2018).…”

Section: Heat and Heatwave Impact Servicesmentioning

confidence: 86%

A heatwave forecast service for Australia

Bettio¹,

Nairn²,

McGibbony³

et al. 2019

Proc. R. Soc. Vic.

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The Australian Bureau of Meteorology monitors, researches, predicts and communicates Australia's weather and climate. Australia's mean temperature has risen by over 1°C since 1910, leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events. Extreme heat can profoundly impact human health, infrastructure and the environment. Research conducted at the Bureau and elsewhere shows that climate change is impacting the intensity and frequency of extreme heat events. One way that the Bureau has responded to this challenge is by providing a forecast service specifically targeted at identifying heatwaves. The heatwave service identifies areas expected to be impacted by three or more consecutive days of unusually high maximum and minimum temperatures on a national map. The service has been developed with clear impact-based categories of heatwave severity. This heatwave service is now available operationally on the Bureau's website during the heatwave season (nominally November to March) and is proving a valuable tool for engaging the community, including emergency services, with forecasts and warnings of extreme heat.

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Heat-related deaths in Adelaide, South Australia: Review of the literature and case findings – An Australian perspective

Cited by 21 publications

References 52 publications

Difference in the characteristics of mortality reports during a heatwave period: retrospective analysis comparing deaths during a heatwave in January 2014 with the same period a year earlier

Difference in the characteristics of mortality reports during a heatwave period: retrospective analysis comparing deaths during a heatwave in January 2014 with the same period a year earlier

Key Conclusions of the First International Urban Land Surface Model Comparison Project

A heatwave forecast service for Australia

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