Future Burden of Heat on Mortality in Flanders: A Modeling Approach Accounting for Climate and Population Dynamics
摘要
The increased frequency of extreme heat and heat waves is directly linked to global warming. These phenomena are mostly observed in urban agglomerations that retain a relatively large amount of heat and cause heat stress among people over 65 years of age and young children, resulting in excess mortality. Mapping the health impact of heat, now and in the future, is an important step for preventive climate health policy and aims to identify priority locations and vulnerable target groups, thus allowing policymakers to take effective actions. Unlocking climate health data can increase support for taking climate action. This paper presents the potential impact of heat on the health of the Flemish population under different scenarios, combining health, climate, and land use models in space and time. One corresponds to the actual situation according to demographics and daily temperature, and the two others correspond to projections for the year 2050 that are aligned with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenario SSP5