A heat vulnerability index to improve urban public health management in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Méndez‐Lázaro, Pablo; Muller‐Karger, Frank E.; Otis, D. B.; McCarthy, Matthew J.; Rodríguez, Ernesto

doi:10.1007/s00484-017-1319-z

Cited by 73 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…At this site, public and private places tend to be more heavily forested than other sites within the watershed [85]. In Cupey, where heat vulnerability indexes are low [107], shade (and not temperature reduction) was more commonly perceived as a home service, while in San Patricio (lower watershed), where heat vulnerability is high and there is more grey infrastructure, temperature reduction was highly perceived as a home tree service (more than a neighborhood service). This suggests that variation in the climatic conditions experienced by residents may influence the awareness of services by residents, which is consistent with other studies [49].…”

Section: Awareness Of Ecosystem Services and Disservicesmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The most frequently mentioned disservices were maintenance hardship, property damage, and power line obstruction. The recognition of shade and temperature regulation is not surprising given the tropical environment of San Juan, which has been shown to exhibit a strong urban heat island effect [105] and temperatures and extreme heat episodes have been on the rise for the past 40 years as a result of climate change [106,107]. Awareness of shade is consistent with previous temperate city studies of residents ranking shade along with aesthetic value (i.e., ornamental, beauty) as the most important services of urban trees [49,51,52,58,63,65], in addition to oxygen supply in Morelia Mexico, [53] and fruit provision in South Africa [56].…”

Section: Awareness Of Ecosystem Services and Disservicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Attitudes toward Residential Trees and Awareness of Tree Services and Disservices in a Tropical City

et al. 2019

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Attitudes toward urban residential trees and awareness of their ecosystem services and disservices may play an important role in management decisions of private residential green spaces with important consequences to urban sustainability. In 2011, 397 household surveys were conducted in six locations of the Río Piedras Watershed (San Juan, Puerto Rico) to evaluate residents' attitudes toward residential and neighborhood trees and their association with household socio-demographic factors, how awareness of services and disservices relate to the spatial proximity of trees (home versus neighborhood), and whether attitudes are associated with yard management (tree abundance). Most residents self-reported positive attitudes toward trees in general and these appeared to be more frequent than self-reported negative attitudes. Respondents recognized more tree services (emphasizing shade, lower temperature, food, and ornamental/aesthetics) and fewer disservices (emphasizing maintenance hardship, property damage, and power line obstruction). Not all tree services and disservices were equally recognized, and differences in the spatial context of trees and residents may contribute to the variation in residents' awareness of tree ecosystem services or disservices. Variation in positive attitudes partially explained the current variation in yard tree abundance, along with residents' age, housing tenure, yard size, and watershed location. Results have direct implications for urban forest planning and management in residential contexts.Sustainability 2020, 12, 117 2 of 21 feature of green infrastructure and urban forestry management strategies are incorporated into green infrastructure planning due to the commonality of the two approaches [9]. It is generally accepted that these green networks, and trees specifically, can provide a variety of ecosystem services that directly or indirectly impact human well-being in urban socio-ecological systems [10,11]. On the other hand, green spaces may inadvertently cause perceived or realized disservices that may affect human well-being (i.e., structural damage to private or public infrastructure, sources of pollen allergens) [12] if not planned adequately. Managing for ecosystem disservices may facilitate the optimization of outcomes for well-being rather than just managing ecosystem services alone [13]. One possibility is that the interplay between perceived services and disservices of green infrastructure within urban spaces could also be influencing management decisions about these spaces and changing them over time [13][14][15]. If so, urban planning with sustainability as a goal must address the links between human attitudes and behaviors toward green spaces and how these factors may influence the planning, development, and management of urban green infrastructure [16][17][18][19].Residential green infrastructure has earned visibility as an important component of urban landscapes for its potential to provide multiple ecosystem services. Green infrastructure in the form of residential ...

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Section: Awareness Of Ecosystem Services and Disservicesmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Awareness Of Ecosystem Services and Disservicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes toward Residential Trees and Awareness of Tree Services and Disservices in a Tropical City

et al. 2019

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“…In these events, a strong surface high-pressure system was located in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean causing high mortality related to high air temperature and heat stroke [34,35]. In addition, heat index vulnerability was developed for San Juan Bay estuary in Puerto Rico, where high vulnerability areas correspond to urban zones with a high concentration of elderly and unemployed populations [36]. Furthermore, a research agenda for the IAR was proposed to mitigate the extreme heat impact on the community residents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projections of Heat Waves Events in the Intra-Americas Region Using Multimodel Ensemble

Angeles-Malaspina

González-Cruz

Ramirez-Beltran

2018

Advances in Meteorology

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Significant accelerated warming of the Sea Surface Temperature of 0.15 ∘ C per decade was recently detected, which motivated the research for the present consequences and future projections on the heat index and heat waves in the intra-Americas region. Present records every six hours are retrieved from NCEP reanalysis to calculate heat waves changes. Heat index intensification has been detected in the region since 1998 and driven by surface pressure changes, sinking air enhancement, and warm/weaker cold advection. This regional warmer atmosphere leads to heat waves intensification with changes in both frequency and maximum amplitude distribution. Future projections using a multimodel ensemble mean for five global circulation models were used to project heat waves in the future under two scenarios: RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Massive heat waves events were projected at the end of the 21st century, particularly in the RCP8.5 scenario. Consequently, the regional climate change in the current time and in the future will require special attention to mitigate the more intense and frequent heat waves impacts on human health, countries' economies, and energy demands in the IAR.

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“…This assumes an emissivity of 1, when in reality the emissivity of asphalt, concrete, glass, paint, and water (common urban surfaces) ranges from 0.88 to 0.96. Applying such corrections according to their proportion on the city would not alter the order of magnitude of E. The duration of the heat wave (30 days) and temperature (38°C) were obtained from Méndez Lázaro et al (2016Lázaro et al ( , 2017. The duration in seconds was used to convert watts/m 2 to joules/m 2 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Records for San Juan contain heat episodes of up to 40 days in 2012 with sustained air surface temperatures above 30°C and up to 38°C (Méndez Lázaro et al 2016). A surface temperature map for the city showed locations with temperatures as high as 63°C (Méndez Lázaro et al 2017). Increased mortality among the oldest and youngest age classes and increased electric energy consumption for air conditioners are associated with these events (Méndez Lázaro et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of ten extreme disturbance events in the context of social and ecological systems

Lugo

2018

Biogeochemistry

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An extreme disturbance event is one in which any of its component disturbance forces and their interactions with affected systems have dimensions and responses that exceed the known range of variation expected of those parameters. If the exposed system does not respond or exhibits a low level response to an event, the event was not extreme to the exposed system, regardless of the dimensions of its disturbance forces. Extreme disturbance events are complex and require disaggregation to improve understanding of their effects. The areas affected by extreme events and the duration of the events are related but involve many orders of magnitude in terms of area affected and duration. One way to compare events is through a common and objective unit of measure such as energy. A comparison of ten extreme events in terms of their power and total energy delivered per unit area revealed a broad range of values among them. The power of events ranged 8 orders of magnitude and the total load per unit area ranged 14 orders of magnitude. Each event had different points of interaction with exposed ecosystems. When exposed to the same extreme event, the response of social systems is different from the response of the ecological systems. Also, social systems recovered quicker to a category 3 hurricane than did ecological systems. Both social and ecological systems have the capacity to evolve, adapt, innovate, and develop novelty in response to the selective pressure of extreme events.

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A heat vulnerability index to improve urban public health management in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Cited by 73 publications

References 63 publications

Attitudes toward Residential Trees and Awareness of Tree Services and Disservices in a Tropical City

Attitudes toward Residential Trees and Awareness of Tree Services and Disservices in a Tropical City

Projections of Heat Waves Events in the Intra-Americas Region Using Multimodel Ensemble

Characterization of ten extreme disturbance events in the context of social and ecological systems

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