1 / 12

Operational Heat/Health Warning Systems and Application in Urban Environmental Hazard Management

Operational Heat/Health Warning Systems and Application in Urban Environmental Hazard Management. UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE. SYNOPTIC CLIMATOLOGY LABORATORY. U. D. Challenges in Urban Meteorology: A Forum for Users and Providers Rockville, Maryland September, 2004.

lirit
Download Presentation

Operational Heat/Health Warning Systems and Application in Urban Environmental Hazard Management

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Operational Heat/Health Warning Systems and Application in Urban Environmental Hazard Management UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE SYNOPTIC CLIMATOLOGY LABORATORY U D Challenges in Urban Meteorology: A Forum for Users and Providers Rockville, MarylandSeptember, 2004 Dr. Laurence S. KalksteinCenter for Climatic ResearchUniversity of Delaware

  2. Cook County, Illinois: July, 1995 -- During the hottest days, mortality increased by over 100 %

  3. Maximum Temperature vs. Daily Mortality: New York and Jacksonville, Florida New York Jacksonville -- The impact of weather is relative rather than absolute.

  4. What can be done when a heat emergency is called?

  5. Intervention Actions Taken byPhiladelphia Department of Public Health When Health Warning is Issued • Media announcement • Promotion of the “buddy system” • Activation of the “heatline” • Home visits • Nursing and personal care boarding home intervention • Halt of utility service suspensions • Increased emergency medical service staffing • Daytime outreach to the homeless • Air conditioned service facility capability

  6. New Orleans Intervention Activities • Very little

  7. Steps That can be Taken When Alerts or Emergencies are Called 1. NWS alerts appropriate city agency (e.g., Department of Health, Office of Aging, etc.) 2. City develops (or already has in place) intervention plans 3. Effectiveness of system can be monitored in three manners, and improvements are implemented if there are shortcomings: --forecasting effectiveness (false positives or negatives) --accuracy in estimating health impacts of offensive weather --noting if we are saving lives.

  8. Effectiveness of Philadelphia Heat Health System (based on Ebi et. al.*) • Study evaluated effectiveness of Philadelphia system for the summers of 1995-98. • It is estimated that 2.6 lives were saved on average, for each warning day and for the following three days. • Therefore, based on the number of warning called by the Philadelphia Weather Service Forecast Office, the watch warning system saved an estimated 117 lives over the four summer period --------- * Ebi, K.L., T. J. Teisberg, L.S. Kalkstein, L.Robinson, R.F. Weiher. Heat Watch/Warning Systems Save Lives: Estimated Costs and Benefits for Philadelphia 1995-1998. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, August 2004.

  9. How can we make cities cooler?

  10. Key Strategies to Reduce Heat Islands • Urban Vegetation • Cool Roofing • Cool Pavements

  11. Modeling Exercise to Implement These Strategies in Los Angeles • By increasing the urban area’s solar reflectivity (albedo), the intensity of heat and associated deaths should drop. • For Los Angeles, average heat-related mortality dropped by over 20% during hot humid air masses. • Similar results were obtained from Philadelphia. • The costs of adding reflective roofs to inter-city dwellings is not expensive. • The added benefit of vegetation is questionable: • provides shading • but increases relative humidity

More Related