Spatiotemporal Distribution of Heatwave Hazards in the Chinese Mainland for the Period 1990–2019

Abstract

Heatwaves occur frequently in summer, severely harming the natural environment and human society. While a few long-term spatiotemporal heatwave studies have been conducted in China at the grid scale, their shortcomings involve their discrete distribution and poor spatiotemporal continuity. We used daily data from 691 meteorological stations to obtain torridity index (TI) and heatwave index (HWI) datasets (0.01°) in order to evaluate the spatiotemporal distribution of heatwaves in the Chinese mainland for the period of 1990–2019. The results were as follows: (1) The TI values rose but with fluctuations, with the largest increase occurring in North China in July. The areas with hazard levels of medium and above accounted for 22.16% of the total, mainly in the eastern and southern provinces of China, South Tibet, East and South Xinjiang, and Chongqing. (2) The study areas were divided into four categories according to the spatiotemporal distribution of hazards. The “high hazard and rapidly increasing” and “low hazard and continually increasing” areas accounted for 8.71% and 41.33% of the total, respectively. (3) The “ten furnaces” at the top of the provincial capitals were Zhengzhou, Nanchang, Wuhan, Changsha, Shijiazhuang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Haikou, Chongqing, and Hefei. While the urbanization level and population aging in the developed areas were further increased, the continuously increasing heatwave hazard should be fully considered.

Sensitivity of Vegetation Productivity to Extreme Droughts across the Yunnan Plateau, China

“…It allows for the incorporation of multivariate covariate linear submodels and is particularly suitable for time series meteorological data. It has demonstrated superior interpolation accuracy compared to other methods in regions with complex terrains [36] and has been widely studied and applied [37][38][39]. After interpolation, we obtained a grid dataset of monthly average temperature, monthly average precipitation, and monthly total solar radiation from 1982 to 2019, with a spatial resolution of 500 m.…”

China’s public health initiatives for climate change adaptation

“…Studies show that heatwaves more severely impact the eastern and southern provinces of China. 39 Nevertheless, the adaptability brought about by economic development has increased the resilience of individuals with higher incomes to climate change. 40 While most studies have focused on the short-term health impact of climate change, few have quantified the long-term economic impacts caused by heat waves in China.…”

Social-economic transitions and vulnerability to extreme temperature events from 1960 to 2020 in Chinese cities

“… 27 , 28 , 29 Some studies observe that cities located in southern China receives a more significant health burden from cold spells 26 while the those located in eastern and southern China are more severely affected by heatwaves. 30 Therefore, it is imperative to examine the spatial and temporal distribution of the health economic impacts associated with heatwaves and extreme cold in China stemming from the uneven economic development of different regions.…”