Outdoor thermal comfort in various microentrepreneurial settings in hot humid tropical Kolkata: Human biometeorological assessment of objective and subjective parameters

Future Changes in Thermal Bioclimate Conditions over West Bengal, India, Based on a Climate Model

“…A past study noted that in order to focus on the comprehensive spatial distribution of the human thermal environment, a bioclimatic mapping comprising urban and suburban micrometeorological observations should be given the highest priority [85]. Building upon this, two other studies observed that this would help in distinguishing between acceptable or less acceptable human thermal conditions, particularly in human settlements [52,55].…”

“…In recent studies focussing on India, modified PET ranges have been noted. This study also adopted a recent study's corrected PET classification, which was adjusted for Kolkata [52], the data for which are presented in Table 2. To capture the relative changes in future PET and its classes under different emissions conditions for all 15 sites in WB, three future periods were considered with respect to the past period (1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005).…”

“…Additionally, the mean monthly PET differences for all three future periods in the context of the past years are presented under RCP4.5 and RCP8. The relative changes in each PET class and the mean monthly PET differences [52] are expressed as (∆PET) class and (∆PET), respectively, for all three future time periods. As the temperature has significant weightage in deciding bioclimatic indices, the difference in mean monthly temperature (∆Temp) for any station was compared to the difference in mean monthly PET for all three future time periods under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5.…”

“…The changes in PET and Temperature are expressed as follows: Table 2. Categorized PET equivalent temperatures as a function of the thermal sensation for Kolkata [52], Taiwan [71], Western European cities [72][73][74], and Dhaka [75]. This present study used the PET classification of Kolkata [52].…”

“…A recent study reported that a few coastal subtropical locations experienced extremely humid heat episodes, and in terms of frequency, they have doubled in the last four decades [51]. Most of the research work conducted on bioclimatic environments over WB is limited for a short time period [52][53][54][55][56]. However, research studies focused on the validation of long-term trends of regional human thermal stress over WB are scarce.…”