Abstract
Pleasant climates can be divided into two types: the comfortable summer climate and the comfortable winter climate, but existing studies rarely pay attention to the distribution characteristics and differences between the two types of climate. This study investigates the spatial distribution of comfortable summer and winter climates in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and their differences based on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis-Interim (ERA-interim) reanalysis data from 1979 to 2018. The Universal Thermal Climate Index was used to analyze climatic suitability. The findings are as follows. First, the comfortable summer climate regions of the CPEC were mainly distributed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and some regions of Xinjiang in China and also sporadically distributed in high altitude mountains, such as the western plateau area. The comfortable winter climate regions were mainly distributed in vast areas except for Karakoram and nearby areas. Second, there are a few regions with dual attributes of comfortable summer and winter climates in CPEC. Third, according to the calculation and comparison of the regional area of different climate comfort levels in summer and winter, it is found that the comfortable summer climate is scarcer in CPEC and is a monopoly resource. The comfortable winter climate is widely distributed, belonging to the ubiquitous resources. These findings can be helpful for the tourism development of local climate resources.
Highlights
Tourism, which is one of the largest industries in the world, has the most powerful developmental momentum
There is no study on tourism climate comfort in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), so our method is the first to evaluate the climate suitability in the region
The results show that: (1) The comfortable summer climate is affected by middle–high latitudes or high altitudes
Summary
Tourism, which is one of the largest industries in the world, has the most powerful developmental momentum. Since the 20th century, more than 100 thermal indices have been developed to define thermal comfort in the world [4,5]. Among these indices, several indices have been calculated and proposed to assess the suitability of the climate for tourism activities [1,2,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Several methods were designed and proposed for calculating thermal comfort based on human biometeorology One such index is the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), applied in many countries, regions or localities to assess human thermal comfort. UTCI depicted the temporal variability of thermal conditions better than other indices [16]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
