Increasing Human‐Perceived Heat Stress Risks Exacerbated by Urbanization in China: A Comparative Study Based on Multiple Metrics

Abstract

 All indicators of heat stress increase in nearly all major urban agglomerations (UAs), especially in more urbanized and populated UAs  On average, local urbanization contributes to ≈1/4 (1/2) of the total increase in mean (extreme) heat stress in urban core areas of UAs  Urbanization tends to have a strong warming (cooling or weak warming) effect on heat stress in wet (arid) areas and low (high) altitudes Accepted ArticleThis article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

An Observational Investigation of Spatiotemporally Contiguous Heatwaves in China From a 3D Perspective

“…The increasing regional trends in the frequency, magnitude, areal extent, and duration of 3D contiguous heatwaves are consistent with global warming and possible rapid regional/local urbanization in China (Luo & Lau, 2021; Ren & Zhou, 2014; Sun et al., 2016). The significant rises in multiple metrics of contiguous heatwaves as revealed in our study also echo the intensifying trends as reported in previous studies (Y. Chen & Li, 2017; Liao et al., 2018; Lu & Chen, 2016; You et al., 2017), except that most of these studies either examined the temporal variability of heatwaves in fixed reference area or focused their spatial heterogeneity over fixed durations.…”

“…The increasing regional trends in the frequency, magnitude, areal extent, and duration of 3D contiguous heatwaves are consistent with global warming and possible rapid regional/local urbanization in China (Luo & Lau, 2021;Ren & Zhou, 2014;Sun et al, 2016). The significant rises in multiple metrics of contiguous heatwaves as revealed in our study also echo the intensifying trends as reported in previous studies (Y.…”

“…In China, heat‐related mortality reached 26,800 deaths in 2019, which has risen from 1990 by four times (Cai et al., 2021). Moreover, heatwaves are projected to intensify in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration under future global warming and local human activities such as urbanization (Luo & Lau, 2021; Wang et al., 2021).…”

Projected Changes in Socioeconomic Exposure to Heatwaves in South Asia Under Changing Climate

“…According to Mishra et al (2017), if the mean global temperature is limited to 2°C above preindustrial levels, the frequency and intensity of severe HWs is expected to increase 30 times in India by the end of the 21st century. Another study reported that the HWs events involving extremely high temperatures up to 56°C over East-northern Africa are likely to be extended from day to several weeks, causing potential life-threat for humans (Luo & Lau, 2021;Zittis et al, 2021). Therefore, to tackle the adverse impacts on future HWs events over the target region, and quantifying socioeconomic exposure is important to address the risk reduction measure for policymakers and climate adaptation.…”

Compound Hydrometeorological Extremes: Drivers, Mechanisms and Methods

“…Overall, this type of compound extreme is manifested by drought, heat and aridity events in which there are usually low soil moisture, high temperature and high vapor pressure deficit (Zhou et al, 2019). Second, compound hot and wet extremes have been reported across the globe, including hot-humid events (Fischer and Knutti, 2013;Li et al, 2020;Poppick and McKinnon, 2020;Yuan et al, 2020;Luo and Lau, 2021). The main driver of this compound is that heat stress is associated with high humidity, which is conducive to precipitation.…”