Concepts and New Implements for Modified Physiologically Equivalent Temperature

Hourly values of an advanced human-biometeorological index for diverse populations from 1991 to 2020 in Greece

Existing assessments of the thermal-related impact of the environment on humans are often limited by the use of data that are not representative of the population exposure and/or not consider a human centred approach. Here, we combine high resolution regional retrospective analysis (reanalysis), population data and human energy balance modelling, in order to produce a human thermal bioclimate dataset capable of addressing the above limitations. The dataset consists of hourly, population-weighted values of an advanced human-biometeorological index, namely the modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET), at fine-scale administrative level and for 10 different population groups. It also includes the main environmental drivers of mPET at the same spatiotemporal resolution, covering the period from 1991 to 2020. The study area is Greece, but the provided code allows for the ease replication of the dataset in countries included in the domains of the climate reanalysis and population data, which focus over Europe. Thus, the presented data and code can be exploited for human-biometeorological and environmental epidemiological studies in the European continent.

Validity of ten analytical heat stress indices in predicting the physiological parameters of people under various occupational and meteorological conditions

Until now, only a few comprehensive studies have validated analytical heat stress indices in different conditions. The present study aims to investigate the validity of these indicators in predicting the physiological parameters of workers. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 194 male employees working in warm environments. First, demographic information was collected. After participants rested for 30 min, their heart rate and tympanic temperature were measured. The subjects then performed their routine tasks. At the end of 90 min, their heart rate and tympanic temperature were again measured. Additionally, their metabolism rate and clothing thermal insulation were estimated. Environmental parameters were also measured at 30-, 60-, and 90-min time points. Additional information required to compute the indices was recorded. Then, the values of each of the indices were computed. Finally, the validity of the indices was assessed under different conditions. The results indicated that the highest regression coefficients with tympanic temperature were assigned to modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET) (0.7515), predicted heat strain (PHS) (0.7201), and predicted mean vote (PMV) (0.7082), index, respectively. Also, the greatest regression coefficients with heart rate belonged to mPET (0.7773), PMV (0.7624), and PHS (0.6479) index, respectively. Based on the results, the highest diagnostic accuracies of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for tympanic temperature were related to indices of mPET, PHS, and PMV with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.945, 0.931, and 0.930, respectively. Of the studied indices, it was observed that mPET, PHS, PMV, and PPD showed more validity compared to others.

Thermal indices for human biometeorology based on Python

Thermal indices, such as Predicted Mean Vote, Outdoor Standard Effective Temperature, Physiologically Equivalent Temperature, and Universal Thermal Climate Index, are essential for the evaluation of thermal perception, the design of climate sensitive buildings or urban area, and tourism. These thermal indices are built on complicated numeric models. RayMan was developed to calculate thermal indices based on Delphi program language on the Windows 7 operating system. RayMan is not currently under active maintenance or development. Thus, this report describes the development of an innovative Python library named biometeo that includes an innovative thermal index (modified Physiologically Equivalent Temperature) as a next generation program to calculate thermal indices and human biometeorological variables.

Temporal Analysis of Urban-Suburban PET, mPET and UTCI Indices in Belgrade (Serbia)

The analysis of the bioclimatic conditions is becoming increasingly relevant in climate interpretations for human needs, particularly in spatial planning, tourism, public health, sports events, bio-prognosis, etc. In this context, our study presents general temporal bioclimatic conditions in Belgrade, defined based on the PET, mPET and UTCI heat budget indices. Monthly, seasonal and annual indices were analyzed for urban and suburban weather stations based on 43 annual sets of meteorological data obtained by hourly observations at 7 h and 14 h CET. This study aims to present the distribution of PET, mPET and UTCI indices to show the pattern of each index in a mild climate location and to examine annual and seasonal differences of each index in the Belgrade urban center and suburban part of the city. The study results indicate higher biothermal stress in the urban area compared to the suburban zone and that the indices are congruent during the summer. At the same time, during the winter, they are more difficult to compare due to their peculiarities becoming more noticeable. The results obtained of all mean monthly and mean annual values of all three indices clearly indicate the difference that follows the definition of the urban heat island (UHI), particularly those from morning observation and winter season. The UTCI index shows the most significant monthly, seasonal and annual difference between urban and suburban areas for both observations. The annual difference of ΔUTCI7h amounts to 1.5 °C is the same as the annual difference of minimum temperatures (Δtmin). In contrast, the annual differences of ΔPET7h ΔmPET7h are °smaller (0.8 °C and 0.7 °C) and closer to the annual differences of maximum temperatures Δtmax amounted of 0.6 °C.

Approaching environmental human thermophysiological thresholds for the case of Ankara, Turkey

The disclosed study undertook a 'human centred-approach' that ascertained and categorised environmental human thermophysiological risk factors by relating them to the human biometeorological system through the use of three widely utilised energy balance model (EBM) indices, the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), the modified PET, and the universal thermal climate index (UTCI). The disclosed assessment was carried out over the past decade (i.e., 2010-2019) with a 3-h temporal resolution for the case of Ankara through two WMO meteorological stations to compare both local urban and peri-urban environmental conditions. The study recognised extreme annual variability of human physiological stress (PS) during the different seasons as a result of the biometeorological processing of the singular variables, which in the case of average PET for both stations, varied by up to 75 °C between the winter and summer for the same annual dataset (2012). In addition, all EBMs indicated higher heat stress within the city centre that were conducive of both urban extreme heatwaves and very hot days during the summer months, with extreme heat stress levels lasting for longer than a week with PET values reaching a maximum of 48 °C. Similar cold extremes were found for the winter months, with PET values reaching - 30 °C, and average PS levels varying lower in the case of the peri-urban station. Graphical abstract.