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Development of accumulated heat stress index based on time-weighted function

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Abstract

Heat stress accumulates in the human body when a person is exposed to a thermal condition for a long time. Considering this fact, we have defined the accumulated heat stress (AH) and have developed the accumulated heat stress index (AHI) to quantify the strength of heat stress. AH represents the heat stress accumulated in a 72-h period calculated by the use of a time-weighted function, and the AHI is a standardized index developed by the use of an equiprobability transformation (from a fitted Weibull distribution to the standard normal distribution). To verify the advantage offered by the AHI, it was compared with four thermal indices the humidex, the heat index, the wet-bulb globe temperature, and the perceived temperature used by national governments. AH and the AHI were found to provide better detection of thermal danger and were more useful than other indices. In particular, AH and the AHI detect deaths that were caused not only by extremely hot and humid weather, but also by the persistence of moderately hot and humid weather (for example, consecutive daily maximum temperatures of 28–32 °C), which the other indices fail to detect.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the “Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program, CATER 2006‐2306” of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and by the “Advanced Research on Applied Meteorology” of National Institute of Meteorological Research (NIMR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Meteorology research division, National Institute of Meteorological Research, 33 Seohobuk-ro, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, 697-845, Republic of Korea

    Ji-Sun Lee

  2. Department of Environmental Atmospheric Sciences, Pukyong National University, 45 Yongso-ro, Nam-gu, Busan, 608-737, Republic of Korea

    Hi-Ryong Byun

  3. National Disaster Management Institute, 136 Mapo-daero, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 121-719, Republic of Korea

    Do-Woo Kim

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  1. Ji-Sun Lee
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  2. Hi-Ryong Byun
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Correspondence to Hi-Ryong Byun.

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Lee, JS., Byun, HR. & Kim, DW. Development of accumulated heat stress index based on time-weighted function. Theor Appl Climatol 124, 541–554 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1434-x

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