Urban Heat Assessment for Outdoor Events, and the Impacts of "Built Environment" and "Social Vulnerability" Factors.

It is quite difficult to investigate thermal comfort in hot–humid regions, and the temperature in Taiwan is expected to continue to rise in the future, while the summer period will extend from the current approximately 130 days to 155-210 days, and the winter period will decrease from the current approximately 70 days to 0-50 days. Which will lead to a critical condition for outdoor thermal comfort and heat stress risks. Case studies of several outdoor activities of different scales show that under different environmental conditions, participants of different identities will have different thermal risks and different thermal perception/behavior patterns.

It would be essential to focus on outdoor thermal comfort of events with various participants of different thermal sensation and tolerance levels. And to emphasize of providing suggestions for better heat mitigation strategies before the events. A simple visualized system has been established for identifying heat stress levels, and help organizers to adjust 1) what to avoid, and 2) where to apply more heat mitigation strategies, and to provide information to participants of different levels of heat tolerance and concerns.

Urban high temperature is not just a simple environmental phenomenon, but an important global issue involving environmental sustainability, human well-being, quality of life, and public health. For further identification of 1) the areas of higher urban heat risks, 2) the factors that affect the most, and 3) the assessment combining "built environment" and "social vulnerability" factors, the quantitative and specific classification methods had established, which make it possible to 1) clearly evaluate the thermal performance, and 2) identify the high urban heat risk characteristics.