Urban Heat Stress and Aging Populations: Investigating the Impact of Spatial Characteristics on Health, Behaviour, and Perception

Integration of age-friendly city concepts is essential for creating inclusive urban environments that support health and well-being. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to heat stress due to their physiological sensitivity, with prolonged heat exposure potentially causing discomfort, anxiety, and severe health outcomes. Such conditions can also alter behaviour, increasing the risk of social isolation and depression. Few studies have explored how inter-urban spatial variation intersect with health, behaviour and mortality in vulnerable groups. This work addresses this gap by analysing high-resolution spatial data at the neighbourhood level to investigate variations in mortality, behavioural patterns, and risk perception among older adults in Sweden. We employ an innovative approach by combining survey and national mortality data with local spatial characteristics (e.g tree canopy coverage, building density, and proximity to water), to examine behaviours, heat perceptions and mortality rates during heatwaves.  The results show that older adults residing in areas with higher tree canopy coverage were less likely to avoid outdoor activities and perceive problems with indoor heat during heatwaves.  Furthermore, preliminary findings suggest an increased mortality rate in areas with low tree canopy coverage compared to high during warm weather. This highlights the importance of having high tree canopy coverage in residential areas to maintain outdoor activities, reduce problems with indoor heat and heat related mortality among older adults.  Capturing personal experiences and perceptions of public spaces is critical for designing climate-resilient cities that meet the needs of aging populations. Furthermore, the integration of in-situ data with high-resolution spatial datasets provides robust evidence supporting the need for climate adaptation in urban environments.