Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of extreme ambient temperature on hospital emergency room (ER) visits related to mental and behavior disorders in Toronto, Canada. Methods: A time series study was conducted using health and climatic data from April 1st 2002 to March 31st 2010. Relative risks for increases in ER visits were estimated for specific mental and behavior disorders (MBD) after exposure to hot and cold temperatures while using 50th percentile of the mean temperature distribution as the reference. The non-linear nature of the exposure–outcome relationship was accounted for using a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM). The effects of seasonality, humidity, day of the week and outdoor air pollutants (CO2, O3, PM2.5, NO2, and SO2) were also adjusted.    Results: We observed positive associations between elevated mean temperatures and hospital ER visits for MBD. For hot temperatures, significant increases in ER visits for MBD were observed after a mean temperature threshold of about 24°C. The association generally lasted about 3 to 4 lag days with the strongest effect occuring at lag 0 (RR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.03 - 1.09). Similar trends and associations were observed for specific mental illnesses such as mood, neurotic, substance abuse, and schizophrenia related disorders. Cold temperature associations were only observed for schizophrenia. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that extreme temperature poses a risk to the health and wellbeing for individuals with mental and behavior disorders. Patient management and education may need to be improved as extreme temperatures become more prevalent. / Thesis (Master, Community Health & Epidemiology) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-24 14:46:14.57

With no universal criteria for classifying a heat-related death, the scope and magnitude of heat-related illnesses and deaths is underestimated. By using threshold temperatures based on one and two standard deviations from normal, a unique but universal classification for excessive/extreme heat was calculated. These threshold values were calculated for St. Louis, Missouri; New Orleans, Louisiana; Little Rock, Arkansas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin for June, July, and August from 1990 ? 1999. Statistical analysis was performed for each city on days with excessive/extreme maximum and/or minimum temperature values, death count, and death count one, two, and three days later in order to discover a possible strong and significant relationship between excessive/extreme heat and death.

abstract: In the American Southwest, an area which already experiences a significant number of cooling degree days, anthropogenic climate change is expected to result in higher average temperatures and the increasing frequency, duration, and severity of heat waves. Climatological forecasts predict heat waves will increase by 150-840% in Los Angeles County, California and 340-1800% in Maricopa County, Arizona. Heat exposure is known to increase both morbidity and mortality and rising temperatures represent a threat to public health. As a result there has been a significant amount of research into understanding existing socio-economic vulnerabilities to extreme heat which has identified population subgroups at greater risk of adverse health outcomes. Additionally, research has shown that man-made infrastructure can mitigate or exacerbate these health risks. However, while recent socio-economic heat vulnerability research has developed geospatially explicit results, research which links it directly with infrastructure characteristics is limited. Understanding how socio-economic vulnerabilities interact with infrastructure systems is a critical component to developing climate adaptation policies and programs which efficiently and effectively mitigate health risks associated with rising temperatures. The availability of cooled space, whether public or private, has been shown to greatly reduce health risks associated with extreme heat. However, a lack of fine-scale knowledge of which households have access to this infrastructure results in an incomplete understanding of the health risks associated with heat. This knowledge gap could result in the misallocation of resources intended to mitigate negative health impacts associated with heat exposure. Additionally, when discussing accessibility to public cooled space there are underlying questions of mobility and mode choice. In addition to captive riders, a growing emphasis on walking, biking and public transit will likely expose additional choice riders to extreme temperatures and compound existing vulnerabilities to heat. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil Engineering 2016

Communicating the risks related to extreme heat is important and essential for saving lives. This study looks at how tourists think about extreme heat in a hot and dry environment. It looks at relationships between an individual’s local climate, their thoughts about the current weather conditions, and demographics. The results from this study are intended to help tourist agencies, emergency managers and emergency planners, and policymakers in creating and carrying out communication strategies for extreme heat. Thoughts about and physical responses to weather are different for everyone and shaped by personal experiences. How one thinks and feels about the weather is influenced by a lifetime of personal experiences, unique to each person. However, the connection between an individual’s experience and that of his/her understanding of weather-related risk, more specifically risk in extremely hot conditions, has yet to be studied. From 1988 to 2017 extreme heat events have killed more people in the US than any other weather-related hazard (i.e. tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, etc.). By understanding how an individual perceives weather conditions, we can begin to better understand best practices for communicating the risks of extreme heat with the intent of saving lives. There are three primary findings from this study. First is that visitors were likely to overestimate the temperature when it was cooler, but underestimate the temperature when it was hotter. Second, risk perceptions of visitors did not increase during hotter days. Lastly, visitors were not more likely to perform protective behaviors, such as checking the weather or carrying water, on hotter days. If extreme heat conditions do not influence visitors’ behaviors, they are placing themselves more at risk to extreme heat exposure.

Groundnut production is vital to the Senegalese agricultural economy, particularly in the Groundnut Basin. However the region is increasingly affected by climate change and associated rising temperatures. This study investigates long-term changes in the frequency of extreme temperatures in the Groundnut Basin and the impact of extreme temperatures on groundnut production. The current economic costs of extreme temperatures on groundnut farmers and potential future additional economic costs associated with climate change are then calculated. The study uses a two-year panel dataset from 1,123 households in the Groundnut Basin and weather data from meteorological stations and the ERA5 climate database. Results identify a significant increasing trend in extreme temperatures across the Groundnut Basin and a negative relationship between extreme temperatures and groundnut yield. This leads to financial losses for farmers, with adaptation strategies such as input level adjustments providing partial mitigation. Future projections indicate further increases in extreme heat degrees days, resulting in significant yield losses by 2050. But the implications of extreme heat also extend beyond agriculture, affecting human habitation and exacerbating societal inequalities. The findings highlight the potential long-term effects of increasing temperatures on agricultural practices in the Groundnut Basin and underscore the need for adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with the impacts of climate change. / Master of Science / Groundnut production plays an important role in Senegal's agricultural economy, particularly in the Groundnut Basin. However, the region is facing growing challenges due to climate change and rising temperatures. This study examines the long-term changes in extreme temperatures in the Groundnut Basin and their impact on groundnut production. By analyzing data from 1,123 households and temperature records, the study calculates the current economic costs of extreme temperatures on groundnut farmers and predicts potential future costs associated with climate change. The findings reveal a significant increase in extreme temperatures across the Groundnut Basin, which has a negative effect on groundnut yields. As a result, farmers face financial losses. However, they are employing adaptation strategies, such as adjusting input levels, to partially mitigate these losses. In the future, projections indicate that extreme heat will continue to rise, leading to substantial yield losses by 2050. But the implications of these findings also go beyond agriculture, impacting human settlements and exacerbating existing societal inequalities. The study emphasizes the potential long-term consequences of increasing temperatures on groundnut farming in the Groundnut Basin and highlights the urgency of implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies to address the impacts of climate change.

Climate change is expected to affect Canada through extreme heat events (EHEs). Already vulnerable populations, including newcomers and immigrants, will especially be vulnerable to the health impacts associated with EHEs. This population is important to consider for a country as diverse as Canada. With a focus on Hamilton Ontario, this thesis will assess barriers that immigrants and newcomers face with coping to EHEs. Adverse impacts they face will also be discussed. Current formal and informal coping methods will also be highlighted. Quantitative analysis will also be used to explore the relationship between EHEs, air quality (as measured by the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI)), forward sortation areas and hospital admission for heat-related illnesses. The results of this study highlight that unique factors influencing heat health vulnerability among immigrants and newcomers in Hamilton. The benefits of current formal and informal coping mechanisms will also be discussed, as well as areas for improvement. Quantitative analysis also highlights that the AQHI, maximum temperature and a heat event can impact if an individual is admitted to the hospital for a heat-related illness. However, age, gender and most FSAs were not statistically significant. This thesis highlights the importance of considering the immigrant and newcomer population for EHE and general climate change adaptation efforts. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

In the United States (U.S.), extreme temperature-related deaths account for far more deaths than hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. An extreme heat event (EHE) or a heat wave is a sustained period of substantially hotter and/or more humid weather. EHEs cause a wide range of health problems such as rashes, cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and, in some instances, death. Further, meteorology plays a dominant role in the formation of air pollutants. In particular, extremely high temperatures are conducive to the formation of certain air pollutants. In order to understand the adverse health impacts of extreme heat and air pollution levels prevailing during EHEs, it is necessary to define what constitutes a heat episode; however, there is a lack of scientific consensus on definitions and procedures to accurately identify EHEs. This work employs a hierarchical clustering technique to group 92 different EHE definitions into homogeneous sets and uses negative binomial rate regression approach to identify those definitions that are most strongly associated with mortality. Our findings suggest that definitions with thresholds that are either too extreme or too moderate are poorly associated with heat-related mortality for most climate regions. Additionally, the association between air pollution and health, especially mortality, is well understood. However, the role of air pollutants in modifying the relationship between EHEs and mortality is not well characterized in the U.S., yet is critical to generating accurate estimates of health burden. Our results indicate that air pollution confounds the relationship between EHE and mortality, and the extent of confounding varies with climate regions. Further, through this work, the sensitivities associated with selecting an EHE definition is taken into consideration when providing region-specific health and economic burden associated with EHEs. Ideally, the excess deaths and costs presented in this work could be useful to study and quantify the public health risk associated with EHEs, either in a prospective or a retrospective setting.

The urban landscape-heat-health relationship was explored using a model of human thermal comfort (as energy budget) modified to incorporate varying urban landscape. Census Tract-level energy budget was modelled in Toronto during four extreme heat events. Energy budgets (~+80 W m-2) and heat-related ambulance calls (~+10%) increased during heat events and were positively correlated, albeit with some event-to-event fluctuation in relationship strength. Heat-related calls were negatively correlated to canopy cover. “Cooling” design strategies applied to two high-energy budget Census Tracts nearly neutralized (~–25 W m-2) thermal comfort and increased canopy cover (500–600%), resulting in an estimated 40–50% reduction in heat-related ambulance calls. These findings advance current understanding of the urban landscape-heat-health relationship and suggest straightforward design strategies to positively influence urban heat-health. This new high-throughput, Census Tract-level thermal comfort modelling methodology incorporates the complexities of the urban landscape has relevance to landscape architecture, urban design, and public health.

abstract: Electricity infrastructure vulnerabilities were assessed for future heat waves due to climate change. Critical processes and component relationships were identified and characterized with consideration for the terminal event of service outages, including cascading failures in transmission-level components that can result in blackouts. The most critical dependency identified was the increase in peak electricity demand with higher air temperatures. Historical and future air temperatures were characterized within and across Los Angeles County, California (LAC) and Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona. LAC was identified as more vulnerable to heat waves than Phoenix due to a wider distribution of historical temperatures. Two approaches were developed to estimate peak demand based on air temperatures, a top-down statistical model and bottom-up spatial building energy model. Both approaches yielded similar results, in that peak demand should increase sub-linearly at temperatures above 40°C (104 °F) due to saturation in the coincidence of air conditioning (AC) duty cycles. Spatial projections for peak demand were developed for LAC to 2060 considering potential changes in population, building type, building efficiency, AC penetration, appliance efficiency, and air temperatures due climate change. These projections were spatially allocated to delivery system components (generation, transmission lines, and substations) to consider their vulnerability in terms of thermal de-rated capacity and weather adjusted load factor (load divided by capacity). Peak hour electricity demand was projected to increase in residential and commercial sectors by 0.2–6.5 GW (2–51%) by 2060. All grid components, except those near Santa Monica Beach, were projected to experience 2–20% capacity loss due to air temperatures exceeding 40 °C (104 °F). Based on scenario projections, and substation load factors for Southern California Edison (SCE), SCE will require 848—6,724 MW (4-32%) of additional substation capacity or peak shaving in its LAC service territories by 2060 to meet additional demand associated with population growth projections. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2018

abstract: Exertional heat stroke continues to be one of the leading causes of illness and death in sport in the United States, with an athlete’s experienced microclimate varying by venue design and location. A limited number of studies have attempted to determine the relationship between observed wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and WBGT derived from regional weather station data. Moreover, only one study has quantified the relationship between regionally modeled and on-site measured WBGT over different athletic surfaces (natural grass, rubber track, and concrete tennis court). The current research expands on previous studies to examine how different athletic surfaces influence the thermal environment in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area using a combination of fieldwork, modeling, and statistical analysis. Meteorological data were collected from 0700–1900hr across 6 days in June and 5 days in August 2019 in Tempe, Arizona at various Sun Devil Athletics facilities. This research also explored the influence of surface temperatures on WBGT and the changes projected under a future warmer climate. Results indicate that based on American College of Sports Medicine guidelines practice would not be cancelled in June (WBGT≥32.3°C); however, in August, ~33% of practice time was lost across multiple surfaces. The second-tier recommendations (WBGT≥30.1°C) to limit intense exercise were reached an average of 7 hours each day for all surfaces in August. Further, WBGT was calculated using data from four Arizona Meteorological Network (AZMET) weather stations to provide regional WBGT values for comparison. The on-site (field/court) WBGT values were consistently higher than regional values and significantly different (p<0.05). Thus, using regionally-modeled WBGT data to guide activity or clothing modification for heat safety may lead to misclassification and unsafe conditions. Surface temperature measurements indicate a maximum temperature (170°F) occurring around solar noon, yet WBGT reached its highest level mid-afternoon and on the artificial turf surface (2–5PM). Climate projections show that WBGT values are expected to rise, further restricting the amount of practice and games than can take place outdoors during the afternoon. The findings from this study can be used to inform athletic trainers and coaches about the thermal environment through WBGT values on-field. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Geography 2020