Effects on Public Health of Heat Waves to Improve the Urban Quality of Life

Vito Telesca, Aime Lay-Ekuakille, Maria Ragosta, Giuseppina Anna Giorgio and Boniface Lumpungu
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Vito Telesca: School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Aime Lay-Ekuakille: Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Maria Ragosta: School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Giuseppina Anna Giorgio: School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Boniface Lumpungu: Department of Environment, ISTA University, Kinshasa, Congo

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Life satisfaction has been widely used in recent studies to evaluate the effect of environmental factors on individuals’ well-being. In the last few years, many studies have shown that the potential impact of climate change on cities depends on a variety of social, economic, and environmental determinants. In particular, extreme events, such as flood and heat waves, may cause more severe impacts and induce a relatively higher level of vulnerability in populations that live in urban areas. Therefore, the impact of climate change and related extreme events certainly influences the economy and quality of life in affected cities. Heat wave frequency, intensity, and duration are increasing in global and local climate change scenarios. The association between high temperatures and morbidity is well-documented, but few studies have examined the role of meteo-climatic variables on hospital admissions. This study investigates the effects of temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure on health by linking daily access to a Matera (Italy) hospital with meteorological conditions in summer 2012. Extreme heat wave episodes that affected most of the city from 1 June to 31 August 2012 (among the selected years 2003, 2012, and 2017) were analyzed. Results were compared with heat waves from other years included in the base period (1971–2000) and the number of emergency hospital admissions on each day was considered. The meteorological data used in this study were collected from two weather stations in Matera. In order to detect correlations between the daily emergency admissions and the extreme health events, a combined methodology based on a heat wave identification technique, multivariate analysis (PCA), and regression analysis was applied. The results highlight that the role of relative humidity decreases as the severity level of heat waves increases. Moreover, the combination of temperatures and daily barometric pressure range (DPR) has been identified as a precursor for a surveillance system of risk factors in hospital admissions.

Keywords: climate change; heat waves; human health; multivariate analysis; quality of life; urban planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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