There is an increasing awareness that heat is a major killer in many larger urban areas, and many municipalities have taken renewed interest in how they deal with oppressive heat. The implementation of sophisticated heat/health watch warning systems (HHWWS) is becoming more widespread, and these systems are becoming an important mechanism to save lives. One primary consideration in HHWWS development is the knowledge that response to heat varies through time and space. The more elaborate systems consider not only the intensity of heat, but the variability of the summer climate, which is closely related to urban population vulnerability. Thus, thresholds that induce negative health responses vary from one city to another, as well as over the season cycle at any one city. Warning system development involves a clear and consistent nomenclature (e.g. heat advisory, excessive heat warning), coordination between the agency issuing the warning and other stakeholders, public awareness of the system, targeted intervention procedures, and evaluation of effectiveness. This chapter describes these attributes in greater detail.
Over the course of recent decades, significant heat waves (e.g., North America in 1980 and 1995, Europe in 1976 and 2003, East Asia in 2004) have resulted in significant loss of life and exposed considerable weaknesses in the infrastructure of heat wave mitigation plans and human adaptation to oppressive weather (Klinenberg 2002).
In response to these heat events, many municipalities around the world have taken renewed interest in how they deal with the oppressive heat. In this chapter, we discuss the mechanisms for the development and implementation of heat/health watch warning systems (HHWWS), one of the key methods by which heat events are forecast and their effects are mitigated. We begin by describing the details by which thermal stress is evaluated in current HHWWS and the process by which warning criteria are determined. We then discuss the real-time development of HHWWS along with the “message delivery” to the public, heat mitigation strategies, and checking the effectiveness of HHWWS.
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
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bernard S.M. and M.A. McGeehin, 2004: Municipal heat wave response plans. American Journal of Public Health 94:1520–1521.
Calado, R., 2004: Heat-waves in Portugal. In: World Health Organisation. Regional Office for Europe. Extreme weather and climate events and public health responses. Report on a WHO meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia 9–10 February 2004. Copenhagen, Denmark.
Davis, R.E., P.C. Knappenberger, W.M. Novicoff, and P.J. Michaels, 2003: Decadal changes in summer mortality in U.S. cities. International Journal of Biometeorology 47(3):166–175.
de'Donato, F., P. Michelozzi, L. Kalkstein, M. D'Ovido, U. Krichmayer, and G. Accetta, 2005: The Italian project for prevention of heat-health effects during summer, findings from 2005. Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Biometeorology ICB 2005, 5–9 September in Garmisch. Annalen der Meteorologie 41, Vol. 1, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, pp. 287–290.
Department of Health, 2005: Heatwave — Plan for England — Protecting health and reducing harm from extreme heat and heatwaves. London: Department of Health.
Ebi, K.L., T.J. Teisberg, L.S. Kalkstein, L. Robinson, and R.F. Weiher, 2004: Heat watch/warning systems save lives: estimated costs and benefits for Philadelphia 1995–1998. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 85:1067–1074.
Institute de Veille Sanitaire, 2005: Système d'alerte canicule et santé 2005 (Sacs 2005). Paris: Institute de Veille Sanitaire.
Kalkstein, L.S., 2000: Saving lives during extreme summer weather. British Medical Journal 321: 650–651.
Kalkstein, L.S., 2002: Description of our heat/health watch warning systems: their nature and extent and their required resources. Final report for U.S. EPA, Contract number 68-W-02-027.
Kalkstein, L.S., 2006: Heat and health: methodological considerations for warning system development. Paper given to NOAA/NWS Weather Service Forecasting Offices.
Kalkstein, L.S. and R.E. Davis, 1989: Weather and human mortality: an evaluation of demographic and interregional responses in the United States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 79(1):44–64.
Kalkstein, L.S., P.F. Jamason, J.S. Greene, J. Libby and L. Robinson, 1996: The Philadelphia hot weather-health watch/warning system: Development and application, Summer 1995. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 77(7):1519–1528.
Kalkstein, L.S., J.S. Greene, D. Mills, A. Perrin, J. Samenow, and J-C. Cohen, 2008. Analog European Heat Waves for U.S. Cities to Analyze Impacts on Heat-Related Mortality. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 89:75–86.
Klinenberg, E., 2002: Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Koppe, C., G. Jendritzky, 2005: Inclusion of short term adaptation to thermal stresses in a heat load warning procedure. Meteorologische Zeitschrift 14(2):271–278.
Kovats, R.S. and C. Koppe, 2005: Heat waves: past and future impacts on health. In: Ebi, K.L., Smith, J.B., Burton, I. (eds): Integration of Public Health Wit Adaptation to Climate Change — Lessons Learned and New Directions. Taylor & Francis, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 136–160.
Kovats, R.S. and K.L. Ebi, 2006: Heatwaves and public health in Europe. European Journal of Public Health 16:529–599.
Masterton, J.M. and F.A. Richardson, 1979: Humidex, a method of quantifying human discomfort due to excessive heat and humidity, CLI 1–79, Environment Canada, 45 pp.
MeteoSwiss, 2006: Heat. http://www.meteoschweiz.ch/web/en/weather/health/heat.html Accessed 4 April 2006.
Michelozzi, P. and P.J. Nogueira, 2004: A national system for the prevention of heat health effects in Italy. In: World Health Organisation. Regional Office for Europe. Extreme weather and climate events and public health responses. Report on a WHO meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia 9–10 February 2004. Copenhagen, Denmark.
Michelozzi, P., F. de'Donato, G. Accetta, F. Forastiere, M. d'Ovidio, C. Perucci, and L. Kalkstein, 2004: Impact of Heat Waves on Mortality — Rome, June 1—August 15, 2003. Journal of the American Medical Association 291:2537–2538.
Ministero de Sanidad y Consumo, 2005: El Gobbierno se anticipa a una posible ola de calor con la puesta en marcha de un plan de prevención. http://www.msc.es/gabinetePrensa/notaPrensa/desarrolloNotaPrensa.jsp?id=14.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1995: National disaster survey report: July, 1995 heat wave. Silver Spring, MD: U.S. Department of Commerce.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, 2005: Seattle Heat/Health Warning System Fact Sheet, 3 pp.
Paixao, E., 2004: Behaviours of Portuguese population during the August 2003 heat wave. Paper given at the ICARó Conference, 7 May 2004, Lisbon.
Paixao, E., and P.J. Nogueira, 2002: Estudo da onda de calor de Julho de 1991 em Portugal, efeitos na mortalidade: relatório científico. Lisbon, Observatório Nacional de Saúde.
Pascal, M., K. Laaidi, M. Ledrans, E. Baffert, C. Caserio-Schönemann, A. Le Tertre, J. Manach, S. Medina, J. Rudant, and P. Empereur-Bissonnet, 2006: France's heat health watch warning system. International Journal of Biometeorology 50:144–153.
Seattle Partners in Emergency Preparedness, 2005: Conference Brochure, National Weather Service, 10 pp.
Sheridan, S.C., 2002: The re-development of a weather type classification scheme for North America. International Journal of Climatology 22:51–68.
Sheridan, S.C., 2006: Municipal response and public perception of heat/health watch warning systems. Final report for U.S. EPA: Contract Number XA-83105001–0.
Sheridan, S.C., 2007: A survey of public perception and response to heat warnings across four North American cities: an evaluation of municipal effectiveness. International Journal of Biometeorology 52:3–15.
Sheridan, S.C. and T.J. Dolney, 2003: Heat, mortality, and level of urbanization: Measuring vulnerability across Ohio, USA. Climate Research 24:255–266.
Sheridan S.C. and L.S. Kalkstein, 2004: Progress in heat watch warning system technology. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 85:1931–1941.
Smoyer-Tomic K.E. and D.G.C. Rainham, 2001: Beating the heat: development and evaluation of a Canadian hot weather health response plan. Environmental Health Perspectives 109:1241–1247.
Steadman, R.G., 1984: A universal scale of apparent temperature. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology 23:1674–1687.
Szatkowski, G., 2006: The effectiveness of the Philadelphia heat/health system. Paper given at the annual meeting of the Amer ican Meteorological Society, Atlanta.
Tan, J., L.S. Kalkstein, J. Huang, S. Lin, H. Yin, and D. Shao, 2003: An operational heat/health warning system in Shanghai. International Journal of Biometeorology 48:157–162.
U.K. Department of Health, 2005: Heatwave — plan for England: Reducing harm from extreme heat and heatwaves. London: Department of Health.
U.S. EPA, 2006: Excessive heat events guidebook. Boulder, CO: Stratus Consulting.
Watts, J.D. and L.S. Kalkstein, 2004: The development of a warm-weather relative stress index for environmental applications. Journal of Applied Meteorology 43:503–513.
WHO, WMO, and UNEP, 1996: Climate change and human health. Geneva: WHO.
Yarnal, B., 1993: Synoptic Climatology in Environmental Analysis. Bellhaven Press, London, 195 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kalkstein, L.S., Sheridan, S.C., Kalkstein, A.J. (2009). Heat/Health Warning Systems: Development, Implementation, and Intervention Activities. In: Ebi, K.L., Burton, I., McGregor, G.R. (eds) Biometeorology for Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change. Biometeorology, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8921-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8921-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8920-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8921-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)