The thermal perceptions of people in relation to meteorological observations. Case study for the urban agglomeration in Suceava - NE Romania

Abstract

Abstract: Background: This study by design, approach, duration and number of respondents is the first of its kind for Suceava and Romania. The first objective of the study was to assess the average level of thermal perceptions of the population in the researched area. Methods: The respondents appreciated and wrote the level of comfort/discomfort felt daily, the interdiurnal, interlunar and intertemporal regime of thermal perceptions by reference to the meteorological elements and bio-meteorological indices was also assessed. The biometeorological survey test was conducted from January 1, 2019 to February 28, 2021, and 9321 valid responses were received (on average 11.8 answers/day-1). Results: The overall average of the answers (of -0.55) shows that the respondents perceived the atmosphere of the urban agglomeration as cool, the winters were cold and moderately cold (the answers average = -1.43), whereas the summers were more thermally comfortable than warm (the average of the answers = 0.73). The Pearson correlation coefficients between the averages of the daily answers and the average or extreme values of temperature, respectively of the biome-teorological indices, ranged between 0.65 and 0.88. Conclusions: The PCA analysis reconfirmed high degrees of correlation between the average responses, the examined meteorological and bio-meteorological factors.