scholarly journals Building Resilience to Climate Change: Pilot Evaluation of the Impact of India’s First Heat Action Plan on All-Cause Mortality

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy J. Hess ◽  
Sathish LM ◽  
Kim Knowlton ◽  
Shubhayu Saha ◽  
Priya Dutta ◽  
...  

Background. Ahmedabad implemented South Asia’s first heat action plan (HAP) after a 2010 heatwave. This study evaluates the HAP’s impact on all-cause mortality in 2014–2015 relative to a 2007–2010 baseline. Methods. We analyzed daily maximum temperature (Tmax)-mortality relationships before and after HAP. We estimated rate ratios (RRs) for daily mortality using distributed lag nonlinear models and mortality incidence rates (IRs) for HAP warning days, comparing pre- and post-HAP periods, and calculated incidence rate ratios (IRRs). We estimated the number of deaths avoided after HAP implementation using pre- and post-HAP IRs. Results. The maximum pre-HAP RR was 2.34 (95%CI 1.98–2.76) at 47°C (lag 0), and the maximum post-HAP RR was 1.25 (1.02–1.53) estimated at 47°C (lag 0). Post-to-pre-HAP nonlagged mortality IRR for Tmax over 40°C was 0.95 (0.73–1.22) and 0.73 (0.29–1.81) for Tmax over 45°C. An estimated 1,190 (95%CI 162–2,218) average annualized deaths were avoided in the post-HAP period. Conclusion. Extreme heat and HAP warnings after implementation were associated with decreased summertime all-cause mortality rates, with largest declines at highest temperatures. Ahmedabad’s plan can serve as a guide for other cities attempting to increase resilience to extreme heat.

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (5) ◽  
pp. 662-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augusta A. Williams ◽  
Joseph G. Allen ◽  
Paul J. Catalano ◽  
Jonathan J. Buonocore ◽  
John D. Spengler

Objectives. To examine the impact of extreme heat on emergency services in Boston, MA. Methods. We conducted relative risk and time series analyses of 911 dispatches of the Boston Police Department (BPD), Boston Emergency Medical Services (BEMS), and Boston Fire Department (BFD) from November 2010 to April 2014 to assess the impact of extreme heat on emergency services. Results. During the warm season, there were 2% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0%, 5%) more BPD dispatches, 9% (95% CI = 7%, 12%) more BEMS dispatches, and 10% (95% CI = 5%, 15%) more BFD dispatches on days when the maximum temperature was 90°F or higher, which remained consistent when we considered multiple days of heat. A 10°F increase in daily maximum temperature, from 80° to 90°F, resulted in 1.016, 1.017, and 1.002 times the expected number of daily BPD, BEMS, and BFD dispatch calls, on average, after adjustment for other predictors. Conclusions. The burden of extreme heat on local emergency medical and police services may be agency-wide, and impacts on fire departments have not been previously documented. Public Health Implications. It is important to account for the societal burden of extreme heat impacts to most effectively inform climate change adaptation strategies and planning.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097206342110116
Author(s):  
Suresh K. Rathi ◽  
P. R. Sodani ◽  
Suresh Joshi

A considerable association between temperature and all-cause mortality has been documented in various studies. Further insights can be obtained from studying the impact of temperature and heat index (HI) for Jaipur city’s all-cause mortality. The objective of this work was to assess the association between the extreme heat (daily maximum temperature, daily minimum temperature, daily mean temperature, relative humidity and HI) and all-cause mortality for summer months (March to June) from 2006 to 2015 for urban population of Jaipur. For summer months, we collected the data on various temperature and all-cause mortality parameters for at least 10 years. The student’s t-test and ANOVA were used to analyse variations in mean temperature, maximum temperature and HI. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to study the relationship between ambient heat and lag time effect all-cause mortality. A total of 75,571 deaths (all-cause mortality) for 1,203 summer days (2006–2015) were analysed in relation to temperature and relative humidity. The mean daily all-cause mortality has been estimated at 62.8 ± 15.2 for the study period. There is a significant increase of 39% per day all-cause mortality at the maximum temperature of 45 °C and above. However only 10% rise per day all-cause mortality for extreme danger days (HI > 54 °C). The mean daily all-cause mortality shows a significant association with daily maximum temperature ( F = 34.6, P < .0001) and HI (discomfort index) from caution to extreme danger risk days ( F = 5.0, P < .0019). The lag effect of extreme heat on all-cause mortality for the study period (2006 to 2015) was at a peak period on the same day of the maximum temperature ( r = 0.245 at P < .01) but continues up to four days. The study concludes that the effect of ambient heat on all-cause mortality increase is clearly evident (rise of 39% deaths/day). Accordingly, focus should be put on developing adaptation measures against ambient heat. This analysis may satisfy policy makers’ needs. Extreme heat-related mortality needs further study to reduce adverse effects on health among Jaipur’s urban population.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily J. Wilkins ◽  
Peter D. Howe ◽  
Jordan W. Smith

AbstractDaily weather affects total visitation to parks and protected areas, as well as visitors’ experiences. However, it is unknown if and how visitors change their spatial behavior within a park due to daily weather conditions. We investigated the impact of daily maximum temperature and precipitation on summer visitation patterns within 110 U.S. National Park Service units. We connected 489,061 geotagged Flickr photos to daily weather, as well as visitors’ elevation and distance to amenities (i.e., roads, waterbodies, parking areas, and buildings). We compared visitor behavior on cold, average, and hot days, and on days with precipitation compared to days without precipitation, across fourteen ecoregions within the continental U.S. Our results suggest daily weather impacts where visitors go within parks, and the effect of weather differs substantially by ecoregion. In most ecoregions, visitors stayed closer to infrastructure on rainy days. Temperature also affects visitors’ spatial behavior within parks, but there was not a consistent trend across ecoregions. Importantly, parks in some ecoregions contain more microclimates than others, which may allow visitors to adapt to unfavorable conditions. These findings suggest visitors’ spatial behavior in parks may change in the future due to the increasing frequency of hot summer days.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 1474-1481
Author(s):  
Suresh K Rathi ◽  
Prahlad R Sodani

Background: Studies have documented a significant association between temperature and all-cause mortality for various cities but such data are unavailable for Hyderabad City. Objective: The objective of this work was to assess the association between the extreme heat and all-cause mortality for summer months (March to June) from 2006 to 2015 for Hyderabad city population. Methods: We obtained the data on temperature and all-cause mortality for at least ten years for summer months. Descriptive and Bivariate analysis were conducted. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to study the relationship between heat and all-cause mortality for lag time effect. Results: A total of 122,117 deaths for 1,220 summer days (2006 to 2015) were analyzed with mean daily all-cause mortality was 100.1±21.5. There is an increase of 16% and 17% per day mean all-cause mortality at the maximum temperature of ≥40oC and for extreme danger days (Heat Index >54oC) respectively. The mean daily all-cause mortality shows a significant association with maximum temperature (P < 0.001) and Heat Index from caution to extreme danger risk days (P < 0.0183). The lag effect of extreme heat on all-cause mortality for the study period (2006 to 2015) was at peak on same day of the maximum temperature (r = 0.273 at p<0.01). Conclusion: The study concludes that the impact of ambient heat in the rise of all-cause mortality is clearly evident (16% mean deaths/day). There was no lag effect from the effect of extreme heat on all-cause mortality as the peak period was the same as the maximum temperature. Hence heat action plans are needed. However, extreme heat-related mortality merits further analysis. Keywords: Heat wave; all-cause mortality; urban; humidity; heat index; India.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 28511-28560 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Pusede ◽  
D. R. Gentner ◽  
P. J. Wooldridge ◽  
E. C. Browne ◽  
A. W. Rollins ◽  
...  

Abstract. The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) experiences some of the worst ozone air quality in the US, frequently exceeding the California 8 h standard of 70.4 ppb. To improve our understanding of trends in the number of ozone violations in the SJV, we analyze observed relationships between organic reactivity, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and daily maximum temperature in the southern SJV using measurements made as part of California at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change in 2010 (CalNex-SJV). We find the daytime speciated organic reactivity with respect to OH during CalNex-SJV has a temperature-independent portion with molecules typically associated with motor vehicles being the major component. At high temperatures, characteristic of days with high ozone, the largest portion of the total organic reactivity increases exponentially with temperature and is dominated by small, oxygenated organics and molecules that are unidentified. We use this simple temperature classification to consider changes in organic emissions over the last and next decade. With the CalNex-SJV observations as constraints, we examine the sensitivity of ozone production (PO3) to future NOx and organic reactivity controls. We find that PO3 is NOx-limited at all temperatures on weekends and on weekdays when daily maximum temperatures are greater than 29 °C. As a~consequence, NOx reductions are the most effective control option for reducing the frequency of future ozone violations in the southern SJV.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Dou ◽  
Shiguang Miao

&lt;p&gt;The Chinese New Year (CNY, also called Spring Festival), which officially lasts for 7 days, is the most important holiday in China. Chinese people in large cities usually return to their hometowns for family reunions before the CNY holiday and return afterward. Nearly half of Beijing&amp;#8217;s population has been reported to leave the city for family reunions before the CNY holidays in the past several years. Hourly automatic weather station (AWS) data during CNY 2010-2015 were used to analyze the changes in the temporal and spatial distribution of the Beijing urban heat island intensity (UHII) and the impact of mass human migration on urban temperature. Soil moisture, 10-m wind speed, and cloud cover were considered and indicated nearly no change during the pre-CNY period (2 to 4 weeks before CNY) and CNY week, which means that UHII variation was mainly affected by the mass human migration. Daily UHII during CNY week was lower than during pre-CNY period. UHII for daily maximum temperature decreased by 55% during CNY week than the pre-CNY period (0.6 &amp;#176;C during pre-CNY period vs. 0.27 &amp;#176;C during CNY week) due to mass human migration, which was much larger than the reduction in UHII for the daily maximum temperature (5%, 4.34 &amp;#176;C during the pre-CNY period vs. 4.11 &amp;#176;C during the CNY week). The spatial distribution of the UHII difference between CNY week and the pre-CNY period is closely related to the locations of functional population zones. UHII for daily maximum temperature decreases most (80%, 0.40 &amp;#176;C during the pre-CNY period vs. 0.08 &amp;#176;C during the CNY period) between the Third and Fourth Ring Roads (RRs), an area which experiences high human activity and has the highest floating population percentage. This study can provide suggestions for optimizing the layout of urban space and land-use structures.&lt;/p&gt;


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. e023809
Author(s):  
Young Hee Nam ◽  
Warren B Bilker ◽  
Charles E Leonard ◽  
Michelle L Bell ◽  
Sean Hennessy

ObjectiveHeat is associated with elevated all-cause mortality, and furosemide-induced potassium depletion might be worsened by heat-induced sweating. Because empiric potassium is associated with a marked survival benefit in users of furosemide at a dose of ≥40 mg/day, we hypothesised that this empiric potassium’s survival benefit would increase with higher temperature (≥24°C).DesignCohort study.SettingOutpatient setting, captured by Medicaid claims, supplemented with Medicare claims for dual enrollees, from 5 US states from 1999 to 2010, linked to meteorological data.Population/ParticipantsFurosemide (≥40 mg/day) initiators among adults continuously enrolled in Medicaid for at least 1 year prior to cohort entry (defined as the day following the dispensing day of each individual’s first observed furosemide prescription).ExposureInteraction between: (1) empiric potassium, dispensed the day of or the day following the dispensing of the initial furosemide prescription, and (2) daily average temperature and daily maximum temperature, examined separately.OutcomeAll-cause mortality.ResultsIn 1:1 propensity score matched cohorts (total n=211 878) that included 89 335 person-years and 9007 deaths, all-cause mortality rates per 1000 person-years were 96.0 (95% CI 93.2 to 98.9) and 105.8 (95% CI 102.8 to 108.9) for potassium users and non-users, respectively. The adjusted OR of all-cause mortality for potassium use declined (ie, its apparent protective effect increased) as temperature increased, from a daily average temperature of about 28°C and a daily maximum temperature of about 31°C. This relationship was not statistically significant with daily average temperature, but was statistically significant with daily maximum temperature (p values for the interaction of potassium with daily maximum temperature and daily maximum temperature squared were 0.031 and 0.028, respectively).ConclusionsThe results suggest that empiric potassium’s survival benefit among furosemide (≥40 mg/day) initiators may increase as daily maximum temperature increases. If this relationship is real, use of empiric potassium in Medicaid enrollees initiating furosemide might be particularly important on hot days.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 9441-9458 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. M. Manders ◽  
E. van Meijgaard ◽  
A. C. Mues ◽  
R. Kranenburg ◽  
L. H. van Ulft ◽  
...  

Abstract. Climate change may have an impact on air quality (ozone, particulate matter) due to the strong dependency of air quality on meteorology. The effect is often studied using a global climate model (GCM) to produce meteorological fields that are subsequently used by chemical transport models. However, climate models themselves are subject to large uncertainties and fail to reproduce the present-day climate adequately. The present study illustrates the impact of these uncertainties on air quality. To this end, output from the SRES-A1B constraint transient runs with two GCMs, i.e. ECHAM5 and MIROC-hires, has been dynamically downscaled with the regional climate model RACMO2 and used to force a constant emission run with the chemistry transport model LOTOS-EUROS in a one-way coupled run covering the period 1970–2060. Results from the two climate simulations have been compared with a RACMO2-LOTOS-EUROS (RLE) simulation forced by the ERA-Interim reanalysis for the period 1989–2009. Both RLE_ECHAM and RLE_MIROC showed considerable deviations from RLE_ERA for daily maximum temperature, precipitation and wind speed. Moreover, sign and magnitude of these deviations depended on the region. The differences in average present-day concentrations between the simulations were equal to (RLE_MIROC) or even larger than (RLE_ECHAM) the differences in concentrations between present-day and future climate (2041–2060). The climate simulations agreed on a future increase in average summer ozone daily maximum concentrations of 5–10 μg m−3 in parts of Southern Europe and a smaller increase in Western and Central Europe. Annual average PM10 concentrations increased 0.5–1.0 μg m−3 in North-West Europe and the Po Valley, but these numbers are rather uncertain: overall, changes for PM10 were small, both positive and negative changes were found, and for many locations the two climate runs did not agree on the sign of the change. This illustrates that results from individual climate runs can at best indicate tendencies and should therefore be interpreted with great care.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1472
Author(s):  
Wei Yuan ◽  
Panxi Dai ◽  
Mengxiang Xu ◽  
Wei Song ◽  
Peng Zhang

Aviation operations are significantly affected by weather conditions, such as high-temperature days. Under global warming, rising temperatures decrease the air density and thus, reduce the maximum takeoff weight of an aircraft. In this study, we investigate the impact of global warming on the aircraft takeoff performance in 53 airports in China by combining observational data and CMIP6 climate projections. There is a distinct geographic inhomogeneity of critical temperature, above which the takeoff weight decreases significantly with the increasing air temperature, mostly due to differences in airport elevations. By the end of the century, under the SSP5-8.5 scenario (with average warming of 5.2 °C in China), the daily maximum temperature for nearly all summer days in West China and for about half of the summer days in East China exceeds critical temperature, indicating that frequent weight restriction will be necessary. We further examine the reduction in carrying capacity due to climate change. By the end of the century, under the SSP5-8.5 scenario, the summer total carrying capacity will be reduced by about 2.8% averaged over all 53 airports. The impacts on airports in West China are nearly four times greater than those in East China, due to the higher vulnerability and stronger warming in West China.


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