OSA2.5

Air pollution is repeatedly referred to as the largest environmental health risk in Europe. Exposure to heat can lead to a large variety of negative human health effects. Ground-level ozone (O₃), one major air pollutant, often coincides with elevated air temperature levels. There is evidence that the resulting twofold exposure can lead to a human health risk beyond the sum of the individual effects of each health stressor (e.g., Hertig et al. 2020). But previous studies already point to the fact that the observed and modeled linkages between both variables as well as with underlying synoptic and meteorological drivers vary with the location of sites and from one region to another across Europe (e.g., Jahn, Hertig 2020; Jahn, Hertig 2022). Thus, impacts of concurrent elevated levels of O₃ and air temperate on human health need to be considered with a region-specific perspective. Besides, disease-specific exposure-outcome-relationships have to be taken into account, also with respect to mitigation and adaption strategies in the context of climate change.

The adverse human health effects of ground-level ozone and air temperature under recent and future climate conditions are analyzed and quantified by considering myocardial infarction (MI) as outcome variable. The urban area of Augsburg and two adjacent counties, located in a region with a strong and direct linkage between ozone and air temperature and a sharp projected increase of compound events, represent the regional focus. The association between both exposures and MI risk in Augsburg throughout the 21^st century represents the particular focus of this study. The relationship between one health stressor alone and MI was already assessed in previous studies (e.g., Hertig 2020; Chen et al. 2019), but there is only limited evidence about the compound effect of both exposures on MI.

Chen, K.; Breitner, S.; Wolf, K.; Hampel, R.; Meisinger, C.; et al. (2019) Temporal variations in the triggering of myocardial infarction by air temperature in Augsburg, Germany, 1987-2014. Eur Heart J.  doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehz116

Hertig, E. (2020) Health-relevant ground-level ozone and temperature events under future climate change using the example of Bavaria, Southern Germany. Air Qual Atmos Health. doi: 10.1007/s11869-020-00811-z

Hertig, E.; Russo, A.; Trigo, R. (2020) Heat and ozone pollution waves in Central and South Europe- characteristics, weather types, and association with mortality. Atmosphere. doi: 10.3390/atmos11121271

Jahn, S.; Hertig, E. (2022) Using clustering, statistical modeling, and climate change projections to analyze recent and future region-specific compound ozone and temperature burden over Europe. GeoHealth. Submitted.

Jahn, S.; Hertig, E. (2020) Modeling and projecting health‐relevant combined ozone and temperature events in present and future Central European climate. Air Qual Atmos Health. doi: 10.1007/s11869‐020‐009610

How to cite: Jahn, S. and Hertig, E.: Relationships of compound temperature-ozone pollution-events with myocardial infarction (MI) frequencies in Augsburg, Southern Germany, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-9, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-9, 2022.

Extreme temperature events driven by climate change have been recognized as an important concern for the public health, and these threats have been particularly identified in rapidly growing urban settlements around the world. The impact of extremely hot and cold weather, as well as seasonal air temperature changes are associated with increased mortality and hospitalization, especially due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between different biometeorology conditions, using outdoor theramal comfort (OTC) indices and cardiovascular/respiratory hospital admissions over a multi-year period in Novi Sad, Serbia. We used the following datasets: a) three-year data of OTC indices (Physiological Equivalent Temperature - PET and Mean Radiant Temperature - Tmrt) calculated on the basis of meteorological datasets of the Novi Sad Urban Network (NSUNET); b) cardiovascular/respiratory hospital admissions for 2016-2017; and c) emergency cardiovascular admissions for the 2015-2017 period.

The main goal of our research is to point out that the OTC indices can more comprehensively represent thermal risks to human health or quality of life because in addition to air temperature, they include other meteorological elements (humidity, wind, radiation), which directly affect people. Therefore, OTC indices should be part of urban monitoring networks and prediction and early warning systems that provide heat risk and hazard assessment. Furtheremore, the study outcomes show that hospital admissions pick during summer heat waves, with a time lag from 0 to 3 days. Finally, during very intensive heat waves, the emergency cardiovascular admission picks and reaches about 27% higher value compared to summer season average admission value.

Acknowledgement: The research was supported by the project (number 142-451-2557/2021) financed by the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (regional government).

How to cite: Savić, S., Lužanin, Z., Arsenović, D., Milošević, D., and Dunjić, J.: Cardiovascular and respiratory hospital admissions during different outdoor thermal conditions in urban areas – A case study of Novi Sad (Serbia), EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-29, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-29, 2022.

Because of climate change, summer temperatures are predicted to rise and heat waves to be more recurrent, including in Central Europe. It is important to understand heat-related risks on human mortality and to identify inequalities in vulnerability among the population, such as sex and gender inequalities. In this study, the associations between daily temperature and mortality during the five warmest months of the year (from May to September) have been analysed in the Czech Republic for the period 1995–2019. The primary focus of the analysis was on the differences in the associations by sex, i.e., between men and women. These two categories were further divided by age, marital status, residence’s location and cause of death. Mortality time series have been modelled by a quasi-Poisson regression model with a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) to account for the delayed and non-linear effects of temperature on mortality. The heat-related mortality risks obtained in each population group were expressed in terms of risk at the 99th percentile of summer temperature relative to the minimum mortality temperature.

The results showed that women were more at risk to die because of heat than men. With regard to age, the highest risk for men was observed between 75 to 84 years old, while risk for women was higher for women above 85 years old. Risks among married people were lower than risks among single, divorced and widowed people, and risks in divorced women were significantly higher than in divorced men. Thus, this study showed that social and demographic criteria impacted the heat vulnerability and in particular, results highlighted the important role of sex and gender inequalities in heat-related mortality. Deeper studies on these social drivers would be relevant to design efficient and fair mitigation and adaptation strategies.

How to cite: Vésier, C. and Urban, A.: Gender inequalities in heat-related mortality in the Czech Republic, 1995-2019, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-191, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-191, 2022.

The HUS (Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome) is a disease that mainly affects children, it is a complication of an infection by shiga toxin produced by Eschirichia-coli (STEC) infection. It shows a seasonal nature with lower incidence in the cold period, it is endemic in central Europe and North America but fairly rare. In the high incidence period, from April to October, cases appear in time related clusters, usually not epidemic, in fact they are unrelated for spatially distance or caused by different serotypes. It suggests the role of the weather conditions  as a hot gun.  Attempting to predict by weather conditions the temporal and spatial distribution of the illness could prevent its severity and reduce the damage like kidney failure, disability or worse. 

Past climate study (Acquaotta, et al. 2017) suggests a correlation between the heat waves and infection clusters, for example three or more very hot consecutive days increase the risk of disease. Also the epidemiological study of Biggeri and his Collaborations (personal communication) have analyzed the spatial aggregation of illness in Lombardy (North Italian region) to show the areas with a higher or lower risk of infection. 

In this research the study area is the Lombardy plain with 249 selected cases from 2010 to 2020, 11 years. Two are the main goals: the first is to perform a climate characterisation of the high risk zone in Lombardy, highlighted by Biggeri and his Collaborations. The second is to identify the relationship between infection and extreme precipitation events. 

To analyse the climate peculiarities of Lombardy we used 88 weather series from ARPA (Regional Environmental Protection Agency) Lombardy with an homogeneous distribution in the area. On the daily weather series a quality control was carried out to identify some error in the data. Then a hierarchical cluster analysis by mean of the Ward.d2 method was applied to identify the climate areas. On the daily data, climate indices created by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) were calculated: daily precipitation intensity (SDII), consecutive dry days (CDD), very wet days (R95p) and standard precipitation index (SPI) to show the drought period.

The distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used to examine the relationship between precipitation series and daily illness during January 2010 to December 2020 (Bai et al. 2014;) with a maximum lag of 30 days in order to ensure a greater coverage. The infection dataset was also compared with four climate indices in order to highlight. The linear regression between indices and infections was then calculated. The trends were computed using the TheilSen approach (TSA) (Sen 1968).

How to cite: Novaro, A., Baronetti, A., Ardissino, G., and Acquaotta, F.: The association between precipitation and the spread of shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infection in Lombardy, North of Italy, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-495, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-495, 2022.

Convincing commuters to use a bike for their daily trips is a timely contribution to reach sustainable development goals. In public discussions, bad weather is frequently raised as argument limiting the usability of cycling on an everyday basis. Looking at objective meteorological observations, how often does a typical commuter in an urban environment experiences bad weather while cycling? And can smart cyclists being informed by nowcasting and day-ahead forecasts effectively reduce the number of bad weather rides?

To answer these two key questions of this study, we analyze a huge ensemble of randomly drawn routes and assess the meteorological comfort of each ride by a threshold-based traffic light scheme. We chose temperature, wind, and precipitation as meteorological parameters indicating bad weather for cyclist. Observations are derived both from classical weather stations and from experimental novel urban observation systems: We explore the potential of a high-resolution X-band precipitation radar and of the dense station network (103 stations) during the FESST@HH campaign, which are both available at our study region, the city of Hamburg in northern Germany.

Most frequently we observe discomfort caused by temperature with a probability of 33%. Wind and precipitation discomfort occur only at 6% and 7% of the rides. Being slightly flexible in terms of riding times and being informed by a perfect nowcasting forecast is a very effective approach to reduce the risk to experience rain by a factor of two. Day ahead forecasts by operational ensemble systems provides an almost perfect guidance concerning temperature but the limited predictability of precipitation and wind renders these forecasts only useful for riders with a high risk awareness and small sensitivity to false alarms. In conclusions, this presentation indicates that weather is not severely limiting biking commuters and highlights the potential of guidance from weather observations and forecasts to reduce the risk experiencing bad weather during a ride.   

How to cite: Ament, F., Schmitt, A., Burgemeister, F., Dorff, H., Finn, T., Hansen, A., Kirsch, B., Lange, I., and Radtke, J.: Assessing the weather conditions for urban cyclists by spatially dense measurements, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-606, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-606, 2022.

Situated in the eastern Mediterranean basin, Greece is identified as a climate change hotspot, characterized by pronounced increasing trends in temperature extremes and heat stress. People accommodated in cities are particularly at heat-related risk due to the amplifying impact of the built-up environment in the human thermal comfort conditions. Recent studies highlight the applicability of the local climate zone (LCZ) concept in investigating the diversified heat exposure within cities. For this, in the frame of the ADAPT2CC research project, the current study presents the first attempt at introducing the LCZ framework into a multi-scale numerical modeling system for examining the urban climate and thermal bioclimate in the Athens urban area (AUA), Greece, before, during and after an extreme heat wave (HW) episode that occurred during July and August of 2021. The modeling system is based on the online coupling between the state-of-the-art Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and the advanced urban scheme BEP/BEM (Building Energy Parameterization/Building Energy Model). Further, the system is coupled offline with the RayMan Pro model for assessing the heat stress conditions in a physiologically consistent manner. The performance of the modeling system is evaluated against ground-based and satellite observations, with the results demonstrating a high capability of the system in reproducing the meteorological and human-biometeorological conditions during the examined period (July 25 to August 08, 2021). The numerical atmospheric analysis underlines the important contribution of physical factors (altitude) and background atmospheric circulations (sea breeze and Etesians) to the spatiotemporal variation of the urban temperatures under both non-HW and HW conditions. Concerning the heat stress conditions, the use of the modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET) is suitable for human-biometeorological analysis especially during HW days, when increased solar radiation and low wind speeds prevail. Overall, the long-lasting heat wave of July-August, 2021, put a great heat stress burden to the AUA population, especially in the south and central regions of the study area. In the course of a typical sea breeze day under HW conditions, the local atmospheric circulation lead to lower temperature and mPET values in the south areas of Athens compared to the city’s central regions across all LCZs. However, this cooling effect is not effective to also result in a more comfortable human thermal perception (i.e., from very hot to hot). This outcome, as well as the whole set of results of the study, could be very useful for urban design applications aiming at mitigating the impact of heat waves and urban heat in AUA.

How to cite: Giannaros, C., Agathangelidis, I., Papavasileiou, G., Galanaki, E., Kotroni, V., Lagouvardos, K., Giannaros, T. M., Cartalis, C., and Matzarakis, A.: A holistic study of the urban climate and thermal bioclimate before, during and after the extreme heat wave of July-August, 2021, in the Athens urban area in Greece, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-185, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-185, 2022.

Climate change becomes more evident even in the generally mild climate of Central Europe. Analyses based on long-term temperature observations have confirmed growing numbers of hot days and nights and an increasing frequency of heat waves. In response to this risk, municipalities seek and invest into climate adaptation measures. However, the implemented measures are often inadequate or inefficient. In this study, we focus on the analyses of the effect of blue and green features to reduce heat stress in open public spaces in city centres; our research is conducted in collaboration with local representatives of four Czech cities of Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava and Pilsen. We selected representative locations in each of the four city centres as field measurement sites for air temperature, humidity, wind velocity and globe temperature during hot days. Based on our measurements the UTCI values in five-minute steps were calculated. At the same time, we conducted extensive questionnaire surveys of thermal comfort perceived by passers-by in each of the investigated locations. Our results show that in studied cities, trees within open areas of the city centre lead to a decrease in UTCI by 5–8°C during daytime in tree shade compared to sunlit paved areas. Irrigated and regularly cut lawns in open areas of the city centres cause a decrease of 0–1°C compared to sunlit paved areas. Small features of blue infrastructure (fountains, misting systems etc.) in open areas of the city centre lead to changes in UTCI in the range of −2.5 to +1.0°C, depending on the time of day and on the character of the water feature. Sprinkling the open areas (city squares) with water from tank trucks during heat waves lowers the UTCI by 1–3°C, yet this effect lasts only around 20 minutes (depending on air temperature and air flow). Influence of small water sprinklers and misting systems on the microclimate in distances exceeding 0.5 m from the given water feature was inconclusive. Finally, the results suggest a highly complex relationship between biometeorological indices and thermal sensation vote (TSV) in urban environments − open grassy areas exhibit a lower probability of higher TSV, on the other hand, the probability of higher TSV is higher under trees and near sprayed water-mist.

How to cite: Lehnert, M., Geletič, J., Jurek, M., and Brabec, M.: Effect of blue and green features on thermal exposure and thermal sensation in Czech cities, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-71, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-71, 2022.