Prevention and management of health hazards related to heatwaves

The study examines temporal changes in mortality associated with spells of large positive temperature anomalies (hot spells) in extended summer season in the population of the Czech Republic (Central Europe) during 1986-2009. Declining trends in the mortality impacts are found in spite of rising temperature trends. The finding remains unchanged if possible confounding effects of within-season acclimatization to heat and the mortality displacement effect are taken into account. Recent positive socioeconomic development, following the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, and better public awareness of heat-related risks are likely the primary causes of the declining vulnerability. The results suggest that climate change may have relatively little influence on heat-related deaths, since changes in other factors that affect vulnerability of the population are dominant instead of temperature trends. It is essential to better understand the observed nonstationarity of the temperature-mortality relationship and the role of adaptation and its limits, both physiological and technological, and to address associated uncertainties in studies dealing with climate change projections of temperature-related mortality.

show abstract

“…This also supports the idea that the adverse health effects of heat are largely preventable (e.g. Matthies and Menne 2009).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Declining impacts of hot spells on mortality in the Czech Republic, 1986–2009: adaptation to climate change?

Kyselý

Plavcová

2011

Climatic Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Medium-term measures include increasing the albedo of the building envelope, external shading, insulation, decreasing the internal heat load, the provisioning of passive cooling technologies, and efficient active cooling. Long-term measures encompass the adaptation of building regulations, urban planning, land-use changes, and mitigation of climate change (Matthies and Menne 2009;U.S. EPA 2006;WHO Europe 2008a, 2008b.…”

Section: Heat Wave Risk Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding the avoidable: Towards a European heat waves risk governance

Lass

Haas

Hinkel

et al. 2011

Int J Disaster Risk Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The death toll of recent heat waves in developed countries has been remarkably high, contradicting the common assumption that high levels of economic and technological development automatically lead to lower vulnerability to weather extremes. Future climate change may further increase this vulnerability. In this article we examine some recent evidence of heat wave-related mortality and we conclude that while economic wealth and technological capacity might be a necessary condition for adequately coping with adverse climate change effects, they are not sufficient. Questions of awareness, preparedness, organizational issues, and actor networks have to be addressed in a proactive and focused manner in order to avoid future heat wave damages. We propose some practical consequences for heat wave adaptation measures by adopting a risk governance framework that can be universally applied, as it is sufficiently flexible to deal with the multi-level and often fragmented reality of existing coping measures.

show abstract

“…HHWS, which are often integral components of a wider heat health action plan (Matthies and Menne 2009;WHO Regional Office for Europe 2009 are designed to provide advance warning of impending periods of extreme heat that are likely to have adverse effects on health. Typically HHWS warnings are issued at the urban scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance Assessment of a Heat Wave Vulnerability Index for Greater London, United Kingdom

Wolf

McGregor

Analitis

2014

Weather, Climate, and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ABSTRACTThis study reports on the assessment of a multivariate heat wave vulnerability index (HVI) developed for London, United Kingdom. The HVI is assessed in terms of its ability to predict whether mortality and ambulance callout attain above average levels during heat wave events. Three approaches to assessment were adopted: 1) calculation of categorical statistics and associated skill scores for the dichotomous situation that above average mortality or ambulance callout occurred or not, 2) the degree to which relative risk of the aforementioned health outcomes changed with an increase in heat vulnerability as established using Poisson regression analysis, and 3) an independent samples test of the difference of mean mortality and ambulance callout between census units with and without high heat exposure and high vulnerability. The assessment results reveal that the HVI and a simple single variable index that represents age as a heat risk factor (the elderly index) offer potential as a priori indicators of the level of ambulance callout and mortality for all summer days and heat wave events, respectively. Based on the assessment results the utility of the HVI for heat risk management is discussed.

show abstract

Prevention and management of health hazards related to heatwaves

Cited by 67 publications

References 16 publications

Declining impacts of hot spells on mortality in the Czech Republic, 1986–2009: adaptation to climate change?

Declining impacts of hot spells on mortality in the Czech Republic, 1986–2009: adaptation to climate change?

Avoiding the avoidable: Towards a European heat waves risk governance

Performance Assessment of a Heat Wave Vulnerability Index for Greater London, United Kingdom

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About