Heat vulnerability and spatial equity of cooling center: Planning implications from the Korean case

Abstract

Over the past decade, the number of patients with heat-related illnesses has steeply increased in South Korea. South Korea's main heat adaptation planning revolves around providing cooling shelters, mostly in the form of elderly centers, to those who cannot afford adequate cooling resources. While implementing such a policy is important, it is also important to evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies to derive useful planning implications for future heat adaptation planning. Controlling for the spatial autocorrelation of residuals using the Generalized Least Squares (GLS), we found that the cooling centers in Seoul are overall well-distributed which was attributable to the local heat response policies. However, cooling shelters have been mostly designated in senior shelters lacking mainstreamed discussion that heat vulnerability can be influenced by much diverse factors than age.