Search Results (176)

The Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is a densely populated, highly connected coastal urban region that is exposed to typhoons, extreme rainfall, flooding, storm surges, heat-related risks, and public health emergencies. Existing studies have clarified many aspects of hazard exposure and spatial vulnerability, but evidence on how residents receive warnings, interpret risks, prepare, evacuate, and contribute to community resilience remains dispersed across disciplines and jurisdictions. This study maps the intellectual structure and thematic evolution of research on residents’ responses to urban disaster risks in the GBA. Following a PRISMA 2020-aligned identification and screening process, 144 records from the Web of Science Core Collection were manually screened. Bibliometric analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis, a region–hazard matrix, and a BERTopic-inspired topic modelling procedure were then used to identify publication trends, disciplinary sources, spatial hazard patterns, and latent themes. The results show accelerated growth after 2020 and identify six interrelated themes: risk perception and preparedness; evacuation and shelter accessibility; urban flooding vulnerability; typhoon, storm surge, and coastal community risk; community resilience and climate adaptation governance; and health emergency response and psychosocial resilience. The review synthesises these findings into a heuristic framework linking risk information, cognitive appraisal, response action, and community resilience. The GBA is treated as an analytically informative, rather than statistically representative, case of a high-density, coastal, and multi-jurisdictional urban region. The findings suggest that resident-centred resilience planning should connect trusted and actionable warnings with inclusive digital communication, accessible protective resources, and cross-boundary coordination for compound hazards. Full article

Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) is increasingly addressed within climate adaptation and mitigation policies as a strategic operational measure for reducing climate-related impacts in urban environments. However, GBI effectiveness relies strictly on the biophysical condition of natural assets and on the capacity to monitor and interpret ecosystem processes over time, specifically vegetation quality and its physiological response to climatic stressors within complex urban fabrics. This variability emphasizes the need to integrate ecosystem performance into decision-making through digital frameworks capable of quantifying and accounting for ecological resources across temporal scales. In this context, Remote Sensing (RS) technologies provide a structured informational basis for assessing vegetation health and surface thermal patterns in relation to climatic stress thresholds and human exposure. This paper presents a policy-aligned geospatial evidence framework to bridge the gap between environmental monitoring and urban climate action. By integrating high-resolution multispectral remote sensing with heterogeneous spatial datasets and climate models, the framework enables the multitemporal assessment of ecological conditions to inform where GBI measures can support SECAP implementation, project refinement, and monitoring activities. Developed within the Horizon Europe KNOWING project and applied to the Naples East district, Italy, the framework was operationalized within the city’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP). The application produces scenario-oriented outputs for interpreting the potential contribution of GBI and NbS measures to outdoor heat-stress reduction under SECAP conditions. Its practical value lies in translating biophysical data into reusable GIS/WMS layers that connect ecological performance, climate exposure, socio-energetic vulnerability, and planned urban transformations, thereby supporting SECAP implementation, project refinement, and monitoring. Full article

Heat exposure is an increasingly important climate-related determinant of mental health, yet the biological mechanisms linking heat to psychiatric outcomes remain insufficiently integrated. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from climate medicine, thermoregulation, neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, sleep research, psychopharmacology, epidemiology, and psychiatry to examine how acute and chronic heat exposure may influence mental health. Heat acts as a multi-system biological stressor by challenging thermoregulation, increasing autonomic and cardiovascular strain, disrupting hydration, impairing sleep and circadian rhythms, activating stress-response systems, and contributing to neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, blood–brain barrier disruption, and neurotransmitter alterations. These pathways may interact with psychotropic medication exposure and impaired behavioral thermoregulation, particularly among people with severe mental illness, older adults, individuals receiving lithium, people with cognitive impairment, substance use disorders, outdoor workers, and those living in poorly cooled environments. Heat-related psychiatric vulnerability is therefore transdiagnostic but heterogeneous, with relevance to distress, depression, anxiety, mood instability, psychosis, substance-related crises, cognitive dysfunction, delirium, and suicide-related outcomes. The review also distinguishes pathways supported by stronger human evidence from mechanisms supported mainly by experimental, preclinical, severe-spectrum, or indirect evidence. It proposes an integrative biological model and an evidence-informed translational agenda focused on exposure assessment, biomarkers, sleep and circadian monitoring, medication safety, risk prediction, physiological adaptation, heat-mitigation strategies, heat-health action plans, and implementation-oriented evaluation. Full article

Extreme heat poses health risks during pregnancy, but little is known about how pregnant individuals seek weather information to engage in heat-health protective actions. This study examined associations between routine and event-driven weather information seeking and both routine physiological heat-health protective actions (i.e., limiting sun exposure, staying hydrated, and spending time in air conditioning) and higher-threshold adaptive behaviors (i.e., changing plans due to heat). A cross-sectional survey of 195 pregnant individuals in Bexar County, TX, USA, was conducted during the summer and fall of 2024. Descriptive and nonparametric analyses explored relationships across trimesters. Participants demonstrated high routine weather information seeking and greater weather information needs since becoming pregnant. Over half (51.3%) reported increased weather information seeking during excessive heat, with lower increases during the first trimester. During extreme heat, most respondents increased heat-health protective actions. Increased information needs during pregnancy were significantly related to heat-health protective actions. Routine weather checking showed weak or inverse relationships with changing plans, suggesting that routine weather awareness alone may not prompt changing plans. Trimester patterns indicated heightened information seeking and protective actions later in pregnancy. Findings highlight the importance of pregnancy-specific heat risk communication with trimester-specific guidance provided in clinical counseling, public health messaging, and meteorological communication. Full article

Intensifying heatwaves threaten the reliability of electric distribution systems, yet the quantitative relationship between heatwave characteristics and observed power outage behavior remains poorly understood at multi-year, statewide scales. This study develops an event-based, spatiotemporal framework to quantify heatwave-induced outage risk across 254 Texas counties from 2014–2021 by integrating county-level EAGLE-I outage records with reanalysis-derived heat index measurements. An adaptive percentile-based threshold identifies 3048 heatwave events; logistic regression quantifies the probabilistic relationship between heat intensity and major-outage occurrence under three severity definitions. Across 3048 identified heatwave events, 51% involved at least one outage, a rate significantly above the non-heatwave warm-season baseline and revealing widespread heat-related reliability challenges. Outage severity and duration exhibit heavy-tailed distributions, with a small number of extreme events disproportionately affecting customers. Logistic regression models under three severity definitions (P90, P95, and ≥500 customers) demonstrate that heat intensity is a statistically robust probabilistic predictor of major outages, with each +1 °F increase in mean event heat index raising the odds by approximately 43–52%. The predicted probability of a P90-severity major outage approximately doubles across the interquartile range of event heat intensity (~7% to ~14%), providing actionable guidance for utility pre-staging decisions during forecast heatwave episodes. These findings offer a scalable methodology for climate-related reliability assessment, supporting grid hardening, resource planning, and public health preparedness. Full article

Climate change represents one of the defining global health challenges of the 21st century, with far-reaching implications for population health, health systems, and health equity. The acceleration of environmental change, evidenced by record-breaking global temperatures, extreme weather events, and ecological degradation, poses a direct threat to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all. This manuscript presents a narrative review and policy analysis of the intersection of climate change and global public health in light of the outcomes of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature, major institutional reports, and relevant policy documents, we explore how climate change exacerbates communicable and non-communicable diseases, undermines health system resilience, and disproportionately affects vulnerable populations worldwide. Particular attention is given to heat-related morbidity, infectious disease expansion, air pollution, food and water insecurity, displacement, gender inequities, antimicrobial resistance, and mental health impacts. The paper highlights the significance of the Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP), which is treated here as a COP30-associated action framework that places health more centrally within climate policy discussions. However, major challenges remain, including its voluntary orientation, the absence of dedicated financing mechanisms within the framework itself, and limited clarity on accountability arrangements, as identified through our synthesis of the available policy and evidence base. We argue that achieving SDG 3 is no longer feasible without integrating climate adaptation and mitigation into health systems and policies, and that progress will depend on translating global commitments into context-specific country strategies, governance arrangements, and implementation pathways. Full article

Rapid urbanization and climate change have severely exacerbated the urban heat island (UHI) effect in high-density subtropical megacities. Traditional linear models often fail to capture the complex, non-linear thermal responses driven by three-dimensional (3D) urban morphology and socio-ecological interactions. This study proposes a data-driven analytical framework explicitly tailored for macro/mesoscale climate-resilient urban planning to deconstruct the non-linear associations of Land Surface Temperature (LST) in Shenzhen, China. Integrating multi-source spatial data into a 500 m grid, we utilized the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm for high-precision LST modeling (R² = 0.7851, MAE = 1.1381 °C) and applied the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) approach for spatial interpretability. The results reveal critical non-linear thresholds: vegetation (NDVI) cooling efficiency saturates at 0.8, while impervious surfaces (ISA) transition into dominant heating drivers beyond 0.7. Notably, a synergistic effect indicates that high building volume density (BVD) significantly amplifies the marginal cooling benefits of vegetation. Furthermore, local SHAP attribution combined with K-Means clustering facilitated the delineation of four distinct thermal management zones. This framework shifts UHI mitigation from broad, uniform policies to precise, data-driven spatial diagnostics, offering actionable “one zone, one policy” strategies for sustainable architectural and climate-resilient urban planning. Full article

Small Mediterranean islands relying on the sun–sea–sand (3S) tourism model face growing climate risks that threaten their tourism-dependent economies. This study evaluates climate suitability for 3S tourism on the Island of Vis by integrating the Climate Index for Tourism (CIT) with land- use and land-cover (LU/LC) spatial analysis. The integration is operationalized by overlaying CIT-derived seasonal suitability windows with LU/LC-based spatial vulnerability maps, enabling identification of micro-zones where natural buffers (forest cover and elevation) can offset thermal discomfort during peak heat stress periods. Observed data reveals declining ideal 3S conditions from July to October, with the island already exceeding 50 days per year of Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) above 35.1 °C, increasing by 0.7 days per year. Regional climate models tend to exhibit a cold bias over small Adriatic islands, largely related to their limited spatial horizontal resolution (12.5 km grid spacing). However, they robustly reproduce the direction of recent and projected warming trends. Future projections indicate that the annual number of strong heat stress days with PET above 35.1 °C increase from approximately one per year in the reference period to six under RCP4.5 and nine under RCP8.5, with both scenarios reducing ideal peak-summer conditions while extending favorable periods into transitional seasons. Spatial analysis shows that coastal zones have higher sealed surfaces and less forest cover, reducing natural shade and cooling capacity, while the island interior offers higher elevations, forest buffers, hiking trails, and a UNESCO Global Geopark. Drawing on social–ecological resilience theory, we conceptualize the island’s tourism system as an adaptive unit whose long-term viability depends on spatially diversified resource use and temporally extended seasonality. The integrated analytical framework identifies not only when conditions deteriorate but where alternative tourism resources exist, enabling more targeted adaptation planning and supporting diversification toward outdoor tourism forms. The novelty of this study lies in the systematic spatial integration of bioclimatic suitability assessments (CIT and PET) with LU/LC analysis at the micro-island scale. Such an approach moves beyond temporally focused climate–tourism indices to produce actionable, location-specific adaptation strategies. Full article

Rising ambient temperatures and the increasing frequency of training and competition in hot climates have made heat stress a major challenge in football. Under such conditions, players experience greater cardiovascular and thermoregulatory strain, faster glycogen use, higher perceived exertion, and progressive impairment in repeated high-intensity actions and decision-making. These responses have intensified interest in nutritional strategies that might complement heat acclimation, hydration/electrolyte planning, cooling practices, and recovery management. This narrative review critically synthesizes current evidence on nutritional interventions that may be relevant to football performed in the heat, with emphasis on hydration and electrolyte replacement, carbohydrate–protein strategies, taurine, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), creatine, menthol, antioxidant- and nitrate-related approaches, and selected multi-ingredient products. Across the available literature, hydration/electrolyte planning and carbohydrate–protein feeding remain the practical foundation, menthol appears most consistently useful for perceptual cooling, creatine seems safe and potentially helpful for repeated-sprint support, and taurine is promising but still supported by relatively few trials. By contrast, evidence for BCAAs, antioxidants, nitrates, and caffeine as stand-alone heat strategies, as well as for many compound supplements, remains inconsistent, context-specific, or too indirect for strong football-specific endorsement. Overall, the evidence base remains heterogeneous in study quality, protocol design, exercise mode, and sport specificity. A substantial proportion of the available data is derived from cycling, endurance, or laboratory heat-exercise models rather than football-specific trials. Accordingly, any practical recommendation should be interpreted cautiously and embedded within broader heat-management strategies. Future work should prioritize ecologically valid randomized controlled trials in football or football-like intermittent protocols, with transparent reporting of dose, timing, perceptual outcomes, and match-relevant performance measures. Full article

Amid rapid urbanisation and the associated environmental challenges, such as increased flood risk, the urban heat island effect, and ecosystem degradation, Blue–Green Infrastructure (BGI) has emerged as a vital sustainable development strategy. Some countries have successfully implemented BGI projects, shaped by their unique geographical conditions, socioeconomic contexts, and governance structures. Although the BGI concept is highly relevant worldwide, strategies for integrating BGI into urban environments vary significantly across regions and countries due to their distinct urban structures and spatial planning systems. This study provides a comparative study of BGI implementation into spatial planning systems of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Kraków (Poland), as Central European cities, and Shanghai and Guangzhou, as Chinese cities. Through a systematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, the study evaluates how different enablers, i.e., (1) guidelines, strategies, and actions, (2) land-use strategy for BGI, and (3) potential of factors for BGI implementation, including planning scale, financial, technical, and spatial, facilitate BGI implementation. This comparative study reveals contrasting yet complementary BGI paradigms, most notably related to top-down versus bottom-up implementation and different prioritisation of BGI functions. These varying paradigms are shaped by specific urban challenges, governance, and spatial planning systems. Full article

With global warming and the increasing frequency of extreme heat events, heat health risk assessment (HHRA) has become a critical topic in climate change studies. However, the study themes, methods, and governance orientation of HHRA vary significantly across spatial scales, limiting the comparability and practical integration of assessment outcomes. This study conducts a review of the HHRA literature from 2007 to 2025, analyzing publication trends and evolving research paradigms. The results indicate the following: (1) rapid growth in the field with a notable shift from identifying static vulnerabilities to adopting “Hazard–Exposure–Vulnerability–Adaptability” (HEVA) frameworks, particularly at the micro-scale; (2) a clear scale-dependent hierarchy in assessment focus, where macro-scale studies identify regional trends, meso-scale research targets urban spatial heterogeneity and green–blue infrastructure, and micro-scale assessments emphasize housing conditions and individual perceptions; and (3) machine learning has been widely applied to capture complex nonlinear mechanisms and threshold effects. Finally, this study further emphasizes the importance of establishing a full-process feedback mechanism from macro-level early warning to meso-scale planning and micro-scale intervention, bridging the gap between regional policy and community-level action and providing a theoretical foundation for building climate-resilient cities. Full article

This study aims to investigate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and environmental footprint of BOCOM Petroleum, a mid-sized downstream oil company operating in Douala, Cameroon. In response to the critical need for empirical data on industrial emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa, a mixed-methods approach combining Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), carbon accounting, and stakeholder interviews was adopted. Emissions were categorised following the GHG Protocol into Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (energy-related), and Scope 3 (value chain). Results reveal total annual emissions of 51,734 CO₂, kg/year, with Scope 3 accounting for 38%, Scope 2 for 33%, and Scope 1 for 29%. Major emission sources include stationary combustion, laboratory processes, and the use of electricity-intensive heat-generating machines. An Environmental Management Plan (EMP) was developed, proposing actionable measures such as process optimisation, adoption of energy-efficient equipment, electrification of vehicle fleets, and improved waste management. Findings underscore the need for systemic decarbonisation strategies among mid-sized oil firms and highlight the alignment of corporate initiatives with Cameroon’s climate commitments. This study contributes a replicable methodological framework for emission auditing in industrial enterprises across the region and calls for further integration of environmental and financial planning in corporate sustainability strategies. Full article

Continuous urban expansion and the resulting land use and land cover (LULC) changes significantly exacerbate the urban heat island effect and intensify heatwaves. While the cooling effects of blue–green spaces are widely documented, most studies focus on single landscape types or specific time frames. Few investigations systematically explore the comprehensive thermal regulation mechanisms of gray–green spaces, or their nonlinear driving factors and interactive effects across coupled seasonal and diurnal scales. To address these gaps, this study focuses on Chengdu, a typical expanding city in China, to establish a comprehensive indicator system for urban gray–green spaces. This system encompasses four key dimensions: coverage, fragmentation, aggregation, and morphological spatial pattern. After evaluating 12 machine learning models, the optimal model was selected for further analysis using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and Partial Dependence Plots (PDP). This research investigates the nonlinear thresholds and interactive effects of composite gray–green space indicators on land surface temperature (LST) across varying seasonal and diurnal cycles. The results indicate that: (1) The impact of gray–green spaces on LST varies significantly across seasonal and diurnal contexts. Green spaces primarily exert a cooling effect during spring, summer, and autumn, whereas gray spaces dominate heat retention during winter and across all nocturnal periods. (2) The morphological spatial pattern of green spaces (GMSPA) outperforms traditional coverage indicators (G1) in providing cooling benefits across multiple scenarios. (3) The cooling efficiency of GMSPA peaks between −0.8 and −0.5, reaching saturation at 0.53. Conversely, LST exhibits a sharp, step-like increase when gray space aggregation (B3) exceeds −0.58. (4) Optimizing areas with high GMSPA can significantly mitigate heat exposure risks in expanding cities. These findings offer robust theoretical insights and actionable guidelines for spatial planning aimed at thermal resilience, urban thermal environment management, and building energy conservation in rapidly growing urban areas. Full article

Urban canyons, integral components of the built environment, significantly influence microclimatic conditions and thermal comfort. This review investigates their combined effects with green infrastructure on thermal comfort, offering a comprehensive framework for supporting urban design and greening strategies. The review is based on a structured literature analysis of peer-reviewed studies retrieved from major scientific databases (Scopus and Web of Science), following defined selection and screening criteria. Urban canyon orientation determines solar exposure and its interaction with prevailing wind patterns, affecting ventilation and heat dissipation. The urban canyon aspect ratio influences shading and airflow regulation, while their sky view factor moderates radiative cooling and daylight availability. Urban greening—encompassing street trees, green roofs, and vertical green walls—complements urban geometry by reducing air temperatures, enhancing evapotranspiration, and modifying local wind dynamics. Tree shading can reduce the physiological equivalent temperature in urban canyons, mitigating extreme heat stress. Key vegetative parameters, such as leaf area index and canopy density, are critical for quantifying cooling contributions. Key findings underscore the role of higher aspect ratios in enhancing shading and ventilation while they emphasize the critical influence of street orientation and sky view factor on microclimatic regulation. Vegetation emerges as a vital component, with tree shading contributing substantially to cooling effects and reducing physiological equivalent temperature. The beneficial synergistic interaction between urban geometry and vegetation optimizes thermal comfort. Tailored strategies based on urban canyon typologies balance urban development with environmental sustainability. The proposed framework provides actionable strategies for designing resilient and thermally optimized urban spaces, promoting climate-adaptive urban planning by addressing the dual challenges of the urban heat island and thermal discomfort in cities. Full article

Utilizing MODIS LST data from 2003 to 2024, in conjunction with multi-source remote sensing data including DEM, land use, NDVI, and nighttime lights, this study conducts a remote sensing quantitative assessment and spatiotemporal characteristic analysis of the urban heat island (UHI) effect in Yinchuan City. An improved urban-rural dichotomy approach was adopted to select rural background areas, and elevation correction of land surface temperature was performed based on the zonal ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to eliminate systematic errors caused by topographic differences. The results show that: (1) From 2003 to 2024, the overall intensity of the UHI in Yinchuan City showed a slight downward trend, while the UHI area continued to expand, presenting the characteristics of “decreasing intensity and expanding scope”; (2) The UHI exhibited concentrated and contiguous distribution in summer, and the cold island phenomenon was significant in winter, reflecting the typical seasonal contrast between summer and winter; (3) The global Moran’s I value increased from 0.39 to 0.82, indicating a significant enhancement in the spatial agglomeration of the UHI; (4) The standard deviation ellipse analysis revealed that the centroid of the UHI migrated toward the westward as a whole, which was consistent with the main axis of urban construction. The research results reveal the long-term evolution law and spatial pattern characteristics of the UHI effect in Yinchuan City, and provide a scientific reference for ecological planning and thermal environment regulation of cities in arid regions. These findings enhance the understanding of long-term urban thermal environment dynamics and provide important scientific support for sustainable urban planning, climate adaptation, and ecological management in arid regions. The study contributes to the quantitative monitoring of urban environmental sustainability and supports sustainable development goals related to climate action and sustainable cities. Full article