Review Special Issue: Human Biometeorology—Link to Climate Impact Research

Dear Colleagues,

Human biometeorology has thus far demonstrated a rapid expansion and development with the use of personal computers and new techniques such as GIS. Previously, before the 1970s, simple and linear approaches were utilized to quantify the effect of weather and climate on both the human body and health standards. Since then, new and wholesome approaches defined by the needs and requirements in the quantification of the effect of the atmosphere upon humans have been developed. Such developments have encompassed exploration into numerous vital factors, including thermal conditions, actinic effects, and air pollution influences. Pertinent to these factors has been the intrinsic relationship with issues such as biological particles and other adjacent effects where the atmosphere leads to positive and negative effects upon the human biometeorological system. Furthermore, a particular emphasis has been placed on urban contexts and how thermophysiological stress can be attenuated through the provision of thermal responsive elements/environments to ensure the existing and future quality of life in these spaces. Such future considerations shall unequivocally be associated to the expected impacts of climate change throughout the unravelling of the twenty-first century. This has resulted in new approaches that include the provision of early warning systems that shall play a fundamental role in short- and long-term strategies associated to both mitigation and adaptation efforts. In addition, new statistical methods and tools have catalyzed the development of data-processing capabilities, thus permitting simulations to examine existing climatic conditions and their expected aggravations as a result of climate change.

This Special Issue intends to identify, examine, and structure such developments by instigating detailed reviews into the relationships between human wellbeing and encircling urban climatic conditions. Moreover, a specific emphasis shall be placed on the associated influences of: (i) urban heat island effects; (ii) concrete modifications of the urban climate; (iii) progression and necessity of early warning systems; (iv) climatic effects upon general human health and specific thermal comfort standards; (v) the attenuation of such climatic effects resultant of thermal responsive measures and action; (vi) air pollution and its integral assessment possibilities upon human health as a result of atmospheric conditions; (vii) impacts, relationships, and statistical analysis between atmospheric conditions and mortality/morbidity rates; (viii) extreme climatic events upon human health conditions; (ix) micro and meso scales and their role in approaching human thermal comfort thresholds; (x) interdisciplinary applications of human biometeorology upon subjects such as urban design, urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture; and, finally, (xi) GIS and its application given the continual arrival of new statistical methods, including artificial intelligence and tools in human biometeorology.

Prof. Dr. Panagiotis Nastos
Prof. Dr. Oded Potchter
Prof. Dr. Tzu-Ping Lin
Dr. Andre Nouri
Prof. Dr. Sorin Cheval
Prof. Dr. Andreas Matzarakis
Guest Editors

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