A Comparative Study of the Physiological and Socio-Economic Vulnerabilities to Heat Waves of the Population of the Metropolis of Lyon (France) in a Climate Change Context

Lucille Alonso and Florent Renard
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Lucille Alonso: UMR CNRS 5600 Environment, City and Society, Department of Geography and Spatial Planning University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Faculty of Geography and Spatial Planning, 69007 Lyon, France
Florent Renard: UMR CNRS 5600 Environment, City and Society, Department of Geography and Spatial Planning University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Faculty of Geography and Spatial Planning, 69007 Lyon, France

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: Increases in the frequency and intensity of heat waves are direct consequences of global climate change with a higher risk for urban populations due to the urban heat island effect. Reducing urban overheating is a priority, as is identifying the most vulnerable people to establish targeted and coordinated public health policies. There are many ways of understanding the concept of vulnerability and multiple definitions and applications exist in the literature. To date, however, nothing has been done on the territory of this study, the metropolis of Lyon (France). The objective is thus to construct two vulnerability indices: physiological, focusing on the organism’s capacities to respond to heat waves; and socio-economic, based on the social and economic characteristics and capacities of the community. To this end, two complementary methodologies have been implemented: the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and the PCA (Principal Component Analysis) with Varimax rotation, respectively. The results were then spatialized to the smallest demographic census unit in France. The areas highlighted differed due to conceptual and methodological differences: the highest physiological vulnerabilities are in the center while the socio-economic ones are in the eastern periphery of the urban area. The location of these areas will enable prevention campaigns to be carried out, targeted according to the publics concerned.

Keywords: physiological vulnerability; socio-economic vulnerability; analytic hierarchy process; principal component analysis; heat waves; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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