Outdoor thermal perception and adaptation of immigrants from cold climates to hot arid climate

Abstract

This study examined the long-term thermal perception and adaptation to a hot and arid climate of immigrants from cold regions as compared to native-born residents. The study was conducted in the desert city of Beer Sheva, Israel, population 220,000 inhabitants, including 50,000 immigrants from cold climates of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Climatic measurements were made in winter and summer during 2010–2015 in various outdoor environments in the city, accompanied by questionnaire surveys including 2863 valid responses. Results showed that female immigrants were the most tolerant to the winter cold thermal conditions and their lower limit of neutral temperature was 3–4.5 °C PET lower than the other groups. During the summer, the difference in thermal sensation between genders and origins became negligible above 35 °C PET. The 90% Thermal Acceptability Range (TAR) for the winter was 13–22 °C PET for female immigrants and 17–24 °C PET for male native-born. In summer, the TAR upper limit for all groups was similar. Clothing insulation played an important role, where female immigrants usually used higher clothing insulation than natives. Immigrants from cold climatic backgrounds achieved long-term thermal adaption to the cold arid thermal conditions, and to the hot, arid climatic conditions by adapting behavioral thermal adjustment.