| 
July-August 2004
Coping with heat
Although this summer’s
blockbuster hit, The
Day After Tomorrow, features Ice Age weather
descending on New York City, a less dramatic but
more realistic scenario looms on the other end of
the spectrum: heat waves.
Last year a heat wave in Europe
killed nearly 15,000 people in France alone. Even
though this summer hasn’t
bought similar searing temperatures, it’s probably
a safe bet that heat waves are a more serious threat
in coming decades than instant icebergs.
Olga Wilhelmi |
According to Olga Wilhelmi (ESIG),
the combination of increasing urbanization, growing
numbers of vulnerable people, and evidence of global
warming indicate a need to improve heat wave mitigation. “Heat wave hazards
present a complex, interdisciplinary problem,” Olga
says. “Even though heat waves are common climatic
events affecting a large amounts of population, because
of their slow onset and generally non-destructive nature
they don’t get much media attention until we
see enormous impacts such as those in Europe last summer.”
Olga specializes in studying
societal vulnerability to natural hazards, with an
emphasis on using GIS and remote sensing. In August, she and two co-authors—EISG’s
Bob Harriss and Kathleen Purvis of Claremont College—published
a paper in Natural Hazards Review on how to
apply geospatial information technologies to mitigate
heat waves in urban areas. Urban areas are especially
vulnerable to heat waves because of the urban “heat
island” effect. Buildings, streets, and sidewalks
absorb heat throughout the day but, unlike plants,
don’t evaporate water and cool the air, so temperatures
climb higher in cities than in surrounding rural areas.
One application of remote sensing
described in Olga’s
paper is thermal mapping, in which researchers use
airborne thermal scanners to map the difference between
daytime and nighttime surface temperatures in urban
and rural areas. Researchers can also search for micro-heat
islands within cities. As for GIS, researchers have
recently begun applying this technology to human health,
meteorology, and climatology. It’s particularly
useful for integrating biophysical and socioeconomic
data to identify hot spots in cities and pockets of
populations at risk.Olga stresses that the point of
these technologies is to help prepare cities and people
for heat wave hazards. “There are many things
that can be done to lessen the impacts of heat waves,” she
says. “People just need to be prepared.”
Elderly people living alone,
people living in city centers where the urban heat
island effect is most pronounced, and those without
resources for things like air conditioning or transportation
to cooler places are most likely to suffer when the
mercury rises, Olga says. A combination of public
education, establishment of cooling centers and community
networks, and changes in urban landscapes help prevent
human morbidity and mortality from extreme heat.
It’s also important
for medical staff to know how to recognize signs of
heat exposure.
Olga points out that northern
cities, where people aren’t acclimated to extreme heat, are least
able to handle heat waves. And with climate change
on the horizon, there could be more cities finding
themselves ill-equipped to deal with rising temperatures,
she says. •Nicole Gordon
Spatial distribution of heat related
mortality from 1986 to 2000. The mortality statistics
were obtained from the National Weather Service Office
of Climate, Water and Weather Services (courtesy Olga
Wilhelmi).
Also in this issue...
A pair of sixes: NCAR bolsters
its scientific staff
Over
the hill and picking up speed
No
day at the beach: SOARS protégés
tackle research projects
Child's play
Delphi
Questions
New
Leaders
Newsroom | Events | Publications | Visuals | Help
Center |
|
