Over the last half-century, the probability of heat extreme events has changed by orders of magnitude in almost every region of the world, with occurrences that are now up to a hundred times more in respect to a century ago.
Over the last half-century, the probability of heat extreme events has changed by orders of magnitude in almost every region of the world, with occurrences that are now up to a hundred times more in respect to a century ago. Of all-natural disasters, extreme high temperature events are the main cause of weather-related mortality and they are also expected to be the main factor responsible for additional deaths due to climate change in the coming years.
In cities, the heat island effect creates higher temperatures than in vegetated areas. But conditions within urban areas are not equal in all their parts – either due to their physical form or to the specific needs or vulnerabilities of inhabitants – therefore not all districts of a city are equally vulnerable to heatwaves. Thus, identifying those areas which are particularly vulnerable to heat stress is particularly important to implement interventions at local level aimed at improving the capacity to cope with the impacts of heat waves on citizens’ health.
The literature review “The heat-health nexus in the urban context: A systematic literature review exploring the socio-economic vulnerabilities and built environment characteristics”, published on the Journal “Urban Climate” and conducted by the CMCC Foundation in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, aimed at exploring which vulnerability factors determine the nexus between the heat and the health outcome in a urban context. The analysis selected forty articles from the vast literature on the subject, extracted from two well-known databases of peer-reviewed literature (Scopus e PubMed).
Read more at: CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change
