Abstract
The outdoor thermal comfort index termed ‘Universal Thermal Climate Index’ or ‘UTCI’ was launched in 2009 as successful output of interdisciplinary work performed by a group of experts that composed the European COST Action 730, Commission 6, within the framework of the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB). COST Action 730 was centered on the development of a physiological assessment model of the thermal environment in order to significantly enhance applications related to health and well-being in the fields of public weather service, public health systems, precautionary planning and climate impact research. After a full decade from the finalization and official launch of the UTCI, it is timely relevant to check on the progress and current applications of the index so far. UTCI is to be included in the revision of one of the guidelines of the Association of German Engineers (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure ‘VDI’), VDI Guideline 3787-2, which is aimed at providing “evaluation methods of human biometeorology as a standard for taking into account climate and air quality (bioclimate) in relation to man in overall physical planning”. The chapter describes motivations that lead to the organization and writing of the book, putting this in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allan Z, Jones DS (2020) Pandemic stricken cities on lockdown. Where are our planning and design professionals [now, then and into the future]?. Land Use Policy 97:104805
Altig D, Baker S, Barrero JM, Bloom N, Bunn P, Chen S, Thwaites G (2020) Economic uncertainty before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Public Econ 191:
Auliciems A (2009) Human adaptation within a paradigm of climatic determinism and change. In: Biometeorology for adaptation to climate variability and change. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 235–267
Bröde P, Fiala D, Błażejczyk K, Holmér I, Jendritzky G, Kampmann B, Havenith G (2012) Deriving the operational procedure for the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). Int J Biometeorol 56(3):481–494
Bröde P (2019) UTCI application—basics, caveats, new developments. In: International Conference UTCI—assessment measure in human bioclimatology—10 years of application. Warsaw, 22–23 May 2019
Burton I, Ebi KL, McGregor G (2009) Biometeorology for adaptation to climate variability and change. In: Biometeorology for adaptation to climate variability and change. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 1–5
Candas V, Dufour A (2005) Thermal comfort: multisensory interactions? J Physiol Anthropol Appl Human Sci 24(1):33–36
Cherry JD (2004) The chronology of the 2002–2003 SARS mini pandemic. Paediatr Respir Rev 5(4):262–269
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. COVID-19 in children and the role of school settings in transmission–first update. 23 Dec 2020. Accessed 3 Feb 2021. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/children-andschool-settings-covid-19-transmission
Fiala D, Lomas KJ, Stohrer M (2003) First principles modeling of thermal sensation responses in steady-state and transient conditions. ASHRAE Trans 109:179
Glossary of terms for thermal physiology (2003) Third Edition revised by the commission for thermal physiology of the international union of physiological sciences (IUPS Thermal Commission). J Therm Biol 28:75–106
Gosling SN, Hondula DM, Bunker A, Ibarreta D, Liu J, Zhang X, Sauerborn R (2017) Adaptation to climate change: a comparative analysis of modeling methods for heat-related mortality. Environ Health Perspect 125(8):
Hanna EG, Tait PW (2015) Limitations to thermoregulation and acclimatization challenge human adaptation to global warming. Int J Environ Res Public Health 12(7):8034–8074
Honein MA, Barrios LC, Brooks JT (2021) Data and policy to guide opening schools safely to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. JAMA
Höppe P (1997) Aspects of human biometerology in past, present and future. Int J Biometeorol 40(1):19–23
Huang C, Barnett AG, Wang X, Vaneckova P, FitzGerald G, Tong S (2011) Projecting future heat-related mortality under climate change scenarios: a systematic review. Environ Health Perspect 119(12):1681–1690
IPCC (2014) Climate change 2014: synthesis report. contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. In: Pachauri RK, Meyer LA (eds) Core writing team. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, p 151
Klenert D, Funke F, Mattauch L, O’Callaghan B (2020) Five lessons from COVID-19 for advancing climate change mitigation. Environ Resource Econ 76(4):751–778
Manzanedo RD, Manning P (2020) COVID-19: lessons for the climate change emergency. Sci Total Environ 742:
Martinez GS, Linares C, De’Donato F, Diaz J (2020) Protect the vulnerable from extreme heat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environ Res 187:109684
McGregor GR, Vanos JK (2018) Heat: a primer for public health researchers. Public Health 161:138–146
Ng E (2009) Policies and technical guidelines for urban planning of high-density cities–air ventilation assessment (AVA) of Hong Kong. Build Environ 44(7):1478–1488
Sharifi A, Khavarian-Garmsir AR (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on cities and major lessons for urban planning, design, and management. Sci Total Environ 142391
Shumake-Guillemot J, Amir S, Anwar N, Arrighi J, Böse-O’Reilly S, Brearley M, Zaitchik B (2020) Protecting health from hot weather during the COVID-19 pandemic. http://www.ghhin.org/assets/technicalbrief-COVID-and-Heat-final.pdf
Smith K, Woodward A, Campbell-Lendrum D, Chadee D, Honda Y, Liu Q, Butler C (2014) Human health: impacts, adaptation, and co-benefits. In: Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of working group II to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, pp 709–754
Watts N, Amann M, Arnell N, Ayeb-Karlsson S, Beagley J, Belesova K, Costello A (2020) The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: responding to converging crises. The Lancet
Więckowski M (2020) Can a pandemic stop or slow the Anthropocene? Geographia Polonica 93(4):473–492
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Krüger, E.L. (2021). Introduction. In: Krüger, E.L. (eds) Applications of the Universal Thermal Climate Index UTCI in Biometeorology. Biometeorology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76716-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76716-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76715-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76716-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)