Performances of Limited Area Models for the WORKLIMATE Heat–Health Warning System to Protect Worker’s Health and Productivity in Italy

Daniele Grifoni, Alessandro Messeri, Alfonso Crisci, Michela Bonafede, Francesco Pasi, Bernardo Gozzini, Simone Orlandini, Alessandro Marinaccio, Riccardo Mari, Marco Morabito and on behalf of the WORKLIMATE Collaborative Group
Additional contact information
Daniele Grifoni: Institute of Bioeconomy—National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Alessandro Messeri: Institute of Bioeconomy—National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Alfonso Crisci: Institute of Bioeconomy—National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Michela Bonafede: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene Department, Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority (INAIL), 00078 Rome, Italy
Francesco Pasi: Institute of Bioeconomy—National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Bernardo Gozzini: Institute of Bioeconomy—National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Simone Orlandini: Centre of Bioclimatology—University of Florence (UNIFI), 50100 Florence, Italy
Alessandro Marinaccio: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene Department, Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority (INAIL), 00078 Rome, Italy
Riccardo Mari: Institute of Bioeconomy—National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Marco Morabito: Institute of Bioeconomy—National Research Council (IBE-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
on behalf of the WORKLIMATE Collaborative Group: Membership of the WORKLIMATE Collaborative Group is provided in the Acknowledgments.

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-20

Abstract: Outdoor workers are particularly exposed to climate conditions, and in particular, the increase of environmental temperature directly affects their health and productivity. For these reasons, in recent years, heat-health warning systems have been developed for workers generally using heat stress indicators obtained by the combination of meteorological parameters to describe the thermal stress induced by the outdoor environment on the human body. There are several studies on the verification of the parameters predicted by meteorological models, but very few relating to the validation of heat stress indicators. This study aims to verify the performance of two limited area models, with different spatial resolution, potentially applicable in the occupational heat health warning system developed within the WORKLIMATE project for the Italian territory. A comparison between the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature predicted by the models and that obtained by data from 28 weather stations was carried out over about three summer seasons in different daily time slots, using the most common skill of performance. The two meteorological models were overall comparable for much of the Italian explored territory, while major limits have emerged in areas with complex topography. This study demonstrated the applicability of limited area models in occupational heat health warning systems.

Keywords: occupational health and safety; wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT); climate change; high-resolution forecasts; personalized forecasts for workers; limited area model (LAM); meteorological model performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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