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Extreme heat events caused by climate change and rapid urbanization are major environmental issues affecting the health of urban populations, especially in metropolitan areas. However, few studies have employed a systematic risk assessment model to delineate heat health risk (HHR) in rapidly urbanizing metropolitan areas at a finer resolution, and rare studies have used epidemiological approaches for validation, as mortality is typically considered the most crucial indicator for assessing health impact. Here, a novel integrated socio-ecological-economic index (SEEI) was used to analyze the spatial distribution and evolution of HHR with a neighborhood resolution in Shanghai from 2000 to 2020, and four heat-related mortality indicators were applied to validate. The results showed that (1) the spatial distribution of the SEEI in Shanghai exhibited significant differences between urban and suburban areas, with the main urban areas having an average SEEI 2–3 times higher than suburban areas. (2) Overall, the SEEI peaked in 2010 and declined in 2020, with very high-risk neighborhoods decreasing from seven in 2000 to none in 2020. However, there was a slight trend towards a wider range of moderate-risk neighborhoods. (3) The heat-related mortality indicators exhibited significant correlations with SEEI, demonstrating the reliability of the SEEI as also confirmed by sensitivity analysis. The SEEI used in this study can provide a basis for decision-making for Shanghai as well as similar metropolitan areas to prevent extreme heat events.

During extreme heat events (EHEs) the public often learns about health protective actions through the media. Visual news coverage can act as a powerful tool to help convey complex health protective actions to the public. Despite the importance of images in helping the public understand the risk, there has been no systematic analysis to assess what images have been used by media outlets in Canada during EHEs. This paper helps to fill that gap by analyzing how the Canadian media visually communicated the risks of extreme heat to the public during the unprecedented 2021 Heat Dome. A review of thousands of online news media articles published about the 2021 Heat Dome in Canada was conducted on five subscription news databases. Overall, 845 images were coded to identify denotative, connotative, and ideological content. Only 16% of these published images implied that heat was dangerous, of which only 40% depicted people, and 46% implied human suffering. Our findings demonstrate that the majority of images used in Canadian news coverage on the 2021 Heat Dome are incompatible with, and frequently contradict, evidence-based heat protective actions. Governments, public health agencies, and other stakeholders engaged in distributing heat preparedness messaging (e.g., journalists) should prioritize improving the images of extreme heat in news coverage to align with evidence-based public health messages. With rising global temperatures due to climate change and the associated increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, prioritizing these actions is critically important to offset the threat posed to public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of global climate change, the increasing heat health risk from the combined effect of changes in high temperature, exposure, vulnerability, and other factors has become a growing concern. Yet the low number of temperature observation stations is insufficient to represent the complex changes in urban heatwaves, and subdistrict-scale (town, township, neighborhood committee, and equivalent) heat health risk and adaptability assessments are still limited. In this study, we built daytime and nighttime high-temperature interpolation models supported by data from 225 meteorological stations in Beijing. The models performed well at interpolating the cumulative hours of high temperature and the interpolation quality at night was better than that during the day. We further established a methodological framework for heat health risk and adaptability assessments based on heat hazard, population exposure, social vulnerability, and adaptability at the subdistrict scale in Beijing. Our results show that the heat health risk hotspots were mainly located in the central urban area, with 81 hotspots during the day and 76 at night. The average value of the heat health risk index of urban areas was 5.60 times higher than that of suburban areas in the daytime, and 6.70 times higher than that of suburban areas in the night. Greater population density and higher intensity of heat hazards were the main reasons for the high risk in most heat health risk hotspots. Combined with a heat-adaptive-capacity evaluation for hotspot areas, this study suggests that 11 high-risk and low-adaptation subdistricts are priority areas for government action to reduce heat health risk in policy formulation and urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Climate change is raising global temperatures, leading to more extreme heat events, even in temperate climates like Aotearoa|New Zealand (A|NZ). The impact of rising temperatures and the adequacy of planning measures remain underexplored. This paper highlights A|NZ's anticipated heat-health challenges by analyzing vulnerable populations and assessing current response systems, thereby reinforcing the need for system-level redress, mitigation and adaptation., Content: A scoping review examined the impact of heat and existing mitigation and adaptation responses for vulnerable populations in temperate regions, with a focus on A|NZ. Additionally, temperature trend analysis was conducted for current and projected trends using Climate CHIP for six major heat-affected cities in A|NZ to assess the recognition of heat as a societal concern., Summary and Outlook: The review identified mitigation and adaptation strategies for existing vulnerable groups and discovered other potential vulnerable groups in A|NZ, including Indigenous people (Māori), Pacific communities, low-income groups, migrants, and visitors. Temperature trends show an increasing pattern, suggesting heightened future heat-related impacts on these populations. This review reveals A|NZ's growing vulnerability to rising temperatures, particularly among high-risk groups, and calls for stronger mitigation and adaptation strategies to address future heat-health risks., (© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.)

• A modified model improved the flexibility and accuracy of heat health risk assessment. • This model is valuable for quantifying heat health risk in developing countries. • The city with a larger size has a higher risk index value except supercity. • The overall heat health risk index values continue to rise. Extreme heat events are the leading cause of climate-related disease and death globally. Heat health risk assessment is an effective tool to understand and reduce heat-related morbidity and mortality. However, the indicators of previous studies made it difficult to characterize risk accurately, especially the most important hazard. Besides, studies prefer to focus on spatial variation and ignore the temporal variation. Based on these challenges, this study constructed a modified framework from three components including heat hazard, human exposure, and social vulnerability to propose an assessment of heat health risk in Chinese metropolitan cities from 2000 to 2020. The results indicated that (1) Compared to the traditional framework using a single indicator, the R² has been improved 0.16. (2) Spatially, in the large city, the city with a larger size has a higher risk index except supercity. And more open space has the ability to reduce the damage caused by heat. (3) Temporally, the average heat health risk index of cities increased gradually about 24.72 % from 2020 to 2000. This framework can help to improve the accuracy and flexibility of heat health risk assessment and provide support for sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, which are potentially associated with climate change in the near future, highlights the importance of heat health risk assessment, a significant reference for heat-related death reduction and intervention. However, a spatiotemporal mismatch exists between gridded heat hazard and human exposure in risk assessment, which hinders the identification of high-risk areas at finer scales. Methods A human settlement index integrated by nighttime light images, enhanced vegetation index, and digital elevation model data was utilized to assess the human exposure at high spatial resolution. Heat hazard and vulnerability index were generated by land surface temperature and demographic and socioeconomic census data, respectively. Spatially explicit assessment of heat health risk and its driving factors was conducted in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), east China at 250 m pixel level. Results High-risk areas were mainly distributed in the urbanized areas of YRD, which were mostly driven by high human exposure and heat hazard index. In some less-urbanized cities and suburban and rural areas of mega-cities, the heat health risks are in second priority. The risks in some less-developed areas were high despite the low human exposure index because of high heat hazard and vulnerability index. Conclusions This study illustrated a methodology for identifying high-risk areas by combining freely available multi-source data. Highly urbanized areas were considered hotspots of high heat health risks, which were largely driven by the increasing urban heat island effects and population density in urban areas. Repercussions of overheating were weakened due to the low social vulnerability in some central areas benefitting from the low proportion of sensitive population or the high level of socioeconomic development. By contrast, high social vulnerability intensifies heat health risks in some less-urbanized cities and suburban areas of mega-cities.

Extreme heat, also known as the silent killer that conceal its lethal effect behind heat-related deaths, has become one of the deadliest natural hazards globally. However, the evaluation of heat risks in many countries remains incomplete, overlooking an important component on population health conditions in the evaluation framework. Drawing on the IPCC's risk assessment framework, this study presents, for the first time, a comprehensive heat health risk assessment in Australian capital cities, consisting of three individual indexes—the heat exposure index, heat hazard index and heat vulnerability index—at the finest census unit, and an overall heat health risk index (HHRI). By involving health-related indicators in heat risk assessment, our evaluation takes into account people's sensitivity to heat in developing the heat health risk indexes. Using the HHRI, we identify high heat risk areas appearing primarily in higher density residential areas with some distances away from the inner cities. We also find that the inequity of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, housing features, and built environment features exists in areas with different levels of heat risks. Our findings contribute not only to profiling heat risks in Australian cities, but also empirically advance our understanding of place-based risk reduction in the Southern Hemisphere by linking climate science with health and spatial science research. • This study contributes the first heat health risk assessment in Australian cities. • This study generates the index of heat hazard, vulnerability and exposure and the overall index of heat health risk. • The assessment framework can be applied to other contexts and natural hazards. • Heat health risk related datasets are publicly available. • Spatial and socioeconomic inequity exists across areas with different levels of heat risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]