Heat, mortality, and level of urbanization: measuring vulnerability across Ohio, USA

Few studies have examined heat vulnerability on a sub-metropolitan area level. This paper presents an analysis of heat vulnerability across Ohio (USA) on a county level. Each county is classified as ‘urban’, ‘suburban’, or ‘rural’. Four different criteria defining what is meteorologically ‘oppressive’ are evaluated individually. Each of these criteria is associated with an increase in mortality of several percent statewide. Absolute increases in mortality are greatest across urban counties, as expected. When these values are evaluated as a percentage increase in mortality, rural and suburban counties actually show a greater response. The differences among the 3 groups are not statistically significant. This research thus suggests that merely being an urban resident does not make one more vulnerable to heat.

[1]  Scott C. Sheridan,et al.  The redevelopment of a weather‐type classification scheme for North America , 2002 .

[2]  F. P. Ellis.  Mortality from heat illness and heat-aggravated illness in the United States. , 1972, Environmental research.

[3]  F. P. Ellis,et al.  Mortality in the elderly in a heat wave in New York City, August 1975. , 1978, Environmental research.

[4]  M. Mcgeehin,et al.  The potential impacts of climate variability and change on temperature-related morbidity and mortality in the United States. , 2001, Environmental health perspectives.

[5]  K. Smoyer.  Putting risk in its place: methodological considerations for investigating extreme event health risk. , 1998, Social science & medicine.

[6]  R. Tol.  Estimates of the Damage Costs of Climate Change, Part II. Dynamic Estimates , 2002 .

[7]  L. Kalkstein,et al.  The Philadelphia Hot Weather–Health Watch/Warning System: Development and Application, Summer 1995 , 1996 .

[8]  C. M. Reed,et al.  The epidemiology of heat-related deaths, Texas--1950, 1970-79, and 1980. , 1983, American journal of public health.

[9]  P. Michaels,et al.  Decadal changes in heat-related human mortality in the eastern United States , 2002 .

[10]  L. Kalkstein,et al.  A new approach to evaluate the impact of climate on human mortality. , 1991, Environmental health perspectives.

[11]  L. Kalkstein,et al.  Weather and Human Mortality: An Evaluation of Demographic and Interregional Responses in the United States , 1989 .

[12]  L. Kalkstein,et al.  An evaluation of climate/mortality relationships in large U.S. cities and the possible impacts of a climate change. , 1997, Environmental health perspectives.

[13]  R. Steadman.  The Assessment of Sultriness. Part I: A Temperature-Humidity Index Based on Human Physiology and Clothing Science , 1979 .

[14]  Roger A. Pielke,et al.  Temporal Fluctuations in Weather and Climate Extremes That Cause Economic and Human Health Impacts: A Review , 1999 .

[15]  R. Buechley,et al.  Excess mortality associated with three Los Angeles September hot spells. , 1970, Environmental research.