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UTCI—Why another thermal index?

  • Special Issue (UTCI)
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Abstract

Existing procedures for the assessment of the thermal environment in the fields of public weather services, public health systems, precautionary planning, urban design, tourism and recreation and climate impact research exhibit significant shortcomings. This is most evident for simple (mostly two-parameter) indices, when comparing them to complete heat budget models developed since the 1960s. ISB Commission 6 took up the idea of developing a Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) based on the most advanced multi-node model of thermoregulation representing progress in science within the last three to four decades, both in thermo-physiological and heat exchange theory. Creating the essential research synergies for the development of UTCI required pooling the resources of multidisciplinary experts in the fields of thermal physiology, mathematical modelling, occupational medicine, meteorological data handling (in particular radiation modelling) and application development in a network. It was possible to extend the expertise of ISB Commission 6 substantially by COST (a European programme promoting Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action 730 so that finally over 45 scientists from 23 countries (Australia, Canada, Israel, several Europe countries, New Zealand, and the United States) worked together. The work was performed under the umbrella of the WMO Commission on Climatology (CCl). After extensive evaluations, Fiala’s multi-node human physiology and thermal comfort model (FPC) was adopted for this study. The model was validated extensively, applying as yet unused data from other research groups, and extended for the purposes of the project. This model was coupled with a state-of-the-art clothing model taking into consideration behavioural adaptation of clothing insulation by the general urban population in response to actual environmental temperature. UTCI was then derived conceptually as an equivalent temperature (ET). Thus, for any combination of air temperature, wind, radiation, and humidity (stress), UTCI is defined as the isothermal air temperature of the reference condition that would elicit the same dynamic response (strain) of the physiological model. As UTCI is based on contemporary science its use will standardise applications in the major fields of human biometeorology, thus making research results comparable and physiologically relevant.

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Notes

  1. The Indoor AT, which forms the basis of the US Heat Index, often used in outdoor applications by neglecting the prefix “Indoor” belongs to the simple two-parameter indices.

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Acknowledgements

The UTCI project was performed within COST Action 730, funded by the European Union TRD Framework Programme and the International Society of Biometeorology Commission 6, under the umbrella of the World Meteorological Organization’s Commission on Climatology CCl.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Meteorological Institute, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Gerd Jendritzky

  2. Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Richard de Dear

  3. Loughborough Design School, Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    George Havenith

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  1. Gerd Jendritzky
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  2. Richard de Dear
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  3. George Havenith
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Correspondence to Gerd Jendritzky.

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Jendritzky, G., de Dear, R. & Havenith, G. UTCI—Why another thermal index?. Int J Biometeorol 56, 421–428 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-011-0513-7

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