Assessment of heat effects on health and adaptation measures

The HEAL research mandate, in this regard, tracks the relationships between environmental extremes and clinical health outcomes; but examining how the changing thermal environment affects the occurrence and distribution of risk factors (such as sleep inadequacy) and how this influence can be modified, effectuates a major thematic focus of the HEAL Network.

Rising temperatures due to climate change and the urban heat island effect are posing significant risk to population health in Australia and overseas. Extreme Heat and heatwaves disproportionately affect people with chronic illness, the elderly, and those in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups who have limited ability to adapt to rising temperatures.

Global night temperatures increase more alarmingly, particularly in built-up areas due to the urban heat island effect. Elevated night-time temperature is a risk factor for degraded sleep quality, because the physiologic mechanism for initiating sleep depends on the drop in core body temperature as a consequence of heat transfer from the human body to the cooler night-time air.

Adaptation to heat may involve behavioural interventions, as well as cooling systems, increased urban vegetation, shading and other structural interventions in the built environment. We examined the relationship between heat and health in a variety of environments in Australia and overseas, and assessed the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of urban dwellers, as well as the effectiveness of heat adaptation measures in urban areas.  

Project team: Enembe Okokon and Sotiris Vardoulakis 

Arbuthnott K., Hajat S., Heaviside C., Vardoulakis S., 2020. Years of life lost and mortality due to heat and cold in the three largest English cities.  Environment International 144, 105966.

Mitchell D., Heaviside C., Schaller N., Allen M., Ebi K.L., Fischer E.M., Gasparrini A., Harrington L., Kharin V., Shiogama H., Sillmann J., Sippel S., Vardoulakis S., 2018. Extreme heat-related mortality avoided under Paris Agreement goals. Nature Climate Change 8, 551-553.

Niu Y., Li Z., Gao Y., Liu X., Xu L., Vardoulakis S., Yue Y., Wang J., Liu Q., 2021. A systematic review of the development and validation of the heat vulnerability index: major factors, methods, and spatial units. Current Climate Change Reports 7, 87-97.

Vardoulakis S., Dear K., Hajat S., Heaviside C., Eggen B., McMichael A.J. 2014. Comparative assessment of the effects of climate change on heat and cold related mortality in the UK and Australia. Environmental Health Perspectives 122, 1285-1292