Abstract
Extreme heat events caused by climate change have serious adverse effects on residents' health in many coastal metropolises in southeast China. Adaptive capacity (AC) is crucial to reduce heat vulnerability in the human-environment system. However, it is unclear whether changes in individual characteristics and socioeconomic conditions likely amplify or attenuate the impacts of residents' heat adaptive capacity (HAC) changes. Moreover, which public policies can be implemented by the authorities to improve the HAC of vulnerable groups remains unknown. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 630 residents of Xiamen, a typical coastal metropolis, in 2018. The effects of individual and household characteristics, and government actions on the residents' HAC were examined by using ordinal logistic regression analysis. Results show that the majority (48.10%) of Xiamen residents had a “medium” HAC level, followed by a “high” level (37.14%). On Xiamen Island, residents who settled locally for one–three years and spent less than one hour outdoors might report weaker HAC, and their HAC would not improve with increased air conditioning units in household. In other areas of Xiamen, residents with more rooms in their households, no educational experience, and building areas <50 m2 might report better HAC. Further, vulnerable groups, such as local residents and outdoor workers on Xiamen Island, people lacking educational experience and renters in other areas of Xiamen, showed better AC to hot weather than those in previous studies. Low-income groups should be given more attention by local governments and community groups as monthly household income played a positive role in improving Xiamen residents' HAC. Rational green spaces planning and cooling services, such as street sprinkling operations, provided by municipal departments can effectively bring benefits to Xiamen residents. Identification of basic conditions of AC has significant implications for practical promoting targeted measures or policies to reduce health damages and livelihood losses of urban residents during extreme heat events.
Highlights
Extreme heat events around the world are occurring more frequently due to climate change caused by human activities [1]
The results of the Chi-square test show that there were no statistically significant differences in the characteristics associated with participants’ heat adaptive capacity (HAC), except for the number of fans in household, regardless of whether the participants lived on Xiamen Island or other areas of Xiamen
We found that participants who spent less than an hour outdoors reported significantly weaker HAC than those who spent more than 8 h outdoors, especially in participants from Xiamen Island
Summary
Extreme heat events around the world are occurring more frequently due to climate change caused by human activities [1]. These events have gradually evolved into severe meteorological disasters [2] and have adversely affected the development of human society and health [3, 4]. In the past few decades, continuous urbanization has increased the intensity and duration of hot days in coastal metropolitan areas [5, 6]. Due to the accelerated concentration of population and capital, extreme heat events are becoming more frequent in developed areas along the southeast coast of China [7–9], such as Xiamen. Since the early 1980s, temperatures in Xiamen have continued to rise, and heat events have occurred more frequently. Despite Xiamen Island having a large population, favorable economic and social conditions, and an attractive natural environment (Figure 1), there has been little verification of whether the residents of Xiamen Island are better able to cope with the health threats of hot weather
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