The Imperative for Hazard- and Place-Specific Assessment of Heat Vulnerability

作者：Joseph Karanja, Jennifer Vanos, Matei Georgescu, Amy E. Frazier, David M. Hondula · 发表于：Environmental Health Perspectives · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1289/ehp14801 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Climate Change and Health Impacts、Thermal Regulation in Medicine、Urban Green Space and Health

BACKGROUND: Representing vulnerability is crucial for informing targeted interventions, but existing vulnerability conceptualizations are too general for heat hazard-specific and place-specific relevance. Examining the key decision criteria centering around data choices, selection of input variables, methodological approaches, and theoretical conceptualizations are integral to progressing toward hazard-specific and place-specific vulnerability assessment. Moreover, decisions touching on Geographic Information Science (GIScience)-related issues (e.g., the implications of scale choices and accounting for contextual effects) impact how people who are at risk for adverse heat-health outcomes are represented. In turn, these representations influence how critical interventions are implemented. Given the prospects of increases in adverse heat-health outcomes associated with planetary and urban warming, it is crucial to examine how the representation of heat vulnerability can be enhanced for tailored interventions. OBJECTIVE: This commentary examines the assumptions underpinning the decision criteria for heat vulnerability analysis and identifies associated implications while recommending priority future research. Reorienting general hazard conceptualizations to reflect contextual, heat-specific nuances is crucial for attenuating heat-related health outcomes. DISCUSSION: Heat vulnerability studies lack consistent decision criteria, which undermines progress toward hazard-specific and...