RESUMO
Urban development creates several inadvertent impacts related to urban climate and human biometeorology. Monitoring systems based on microcontrollers are slowly emerging as an alternative to conventional devices for monitoring outdoor thermal comfort (OTC), thus overcoming limitations imposed by the high costs of commercially available equipment. This review was conducted using the Scopus database, searching for articles and conference papers according to a pre-defined search string, which included the terms "microcontrollers" and "human thermal comfort" up to 2022. From a total sample of 113 articles, 52 papers met the desired criteria (written in English, published in peer-reviewed journals, and within the given time frame). Results show a growing, yet timid trend of published material on low-cost, open-source technologies for diverse applications in human biometeorology.
Assuntos
Clima , Meteorologia , Humanos , Bibliometria , Bases de Dados Factuais , EletrocardiografiaRESUMO
This brief background highlights Brazil as a 'climate-health hotspot', i.e. a country where climate affects local populations negatively through multiple pathways (Di Napoli et al. BMC Public Health 22(1):1-8, 2022). Knowledge gaps still need to be filled concerning the various climaterelated dimensions of tourism, vector-borne diseases, mortality and morbidity in urban centers in the country (Krüger et al. Int J Biometeorol 66(7):1297-1315, 2022). Motivated by this, the first Brazilian Symposium on Human Biometeorology (Simpósio Brasileiro de Biometeorologia Humana 2022) was organized and held at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal, northeastern Brazil, between July 4 and 8, 2022. The symposium was organized as a hybrid event by a committee composed of researchers acting in different regions of the country, and who had an ongoing research collaboration on matters related to human biometeorology. The event was partly sponsored by the ISB and partly self-supported by the organizers and institutions involved. The symposium aimed to promote the development of the research area on human biometeorology in Brazil in facing challenges imposed by a globally and locally changing climate. To achieve this, the symposium focused on five main topics of discussion: a) climate-driven diseases; b) thermal comfort, urban and architectural biometeorology; c) atmospheric pollution and health; d) climate change; e) climate, health and climate change. This summary highlights the main findings, future research directions, and policy implications in each topic from the presentations and panel discussions.
Assuntos
Mudança Climática , Meteorologia , Humanos , Brasil , MorbidadeRESUMO
This systematic review aims to give an overview of the diversity of research areas related to human biometeorology in Brazil. The main focus of this paper addresses research trends, represented by published papers with national and international authorship, main contributions and shortcomings, as well as challenges and prospects of research in this area of study. An extensive literature search was conducted in the Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases so as to identify relevant publication output up to July 2021 related to the research area. The screening resulted in 96 studies chosen for full-text reading. Overall, results indicated a reduced amount of articles on the subject matter published internationally, with noticeable gaps in research in some regions of the country, such as the Amazon region and in the Brazilian Midwest region. Research gaps in relevant areas have been identified with limited output in the climate dimensions of tourism, vector-borne diseases, mortality and morbidity in urban centers. Such gaps should further encourage researchers to engage in research focused on those areas.
Assuntos
Meteorologia , Pesquisadores , Brasil , Humanos , MorbidadeRESUMO
With the ever-progressing urbanization of human society comes lingering public issues, primarily those related to human health and the need to provide environments where the population can be routinely frequent. Also, the effects of climatic changes tend to aggravate such public health issues, mainly respiratory and cardiac symptoms. As such, analyzing and studying those environments can be crucial for public administrations in the decision-making processes. One such method of analysis involves using an air enthalpy index to profile and provide a picture of stress situations, helping expedite preventive measures and hospital logistics. With that, this study used the enthalpy index as a tool to create a picture of the effect of seasonality on chronic health issues, such as respiratory and cardiac symptoms, for the city of Botucatu, a city with a characteristic tropical altitude climate. It was possible to determine that the air enthalpy profile is consistent throughout the year near the estimated thermal comfort boundaries, with peaks outside in hotter months. The hospitalizations tend to be more numerous during the transition from hot to cold seasons. Simple correlation analysis, along with a t test, provided further insight into the issue, showing strong correlation for pneumonia with the maximum enthalpy variation, which can relate to the heat amount variation in a given location. Also, an agreement was observed between enthalpy and an established thermal sensation index, the heat index, meaning that air enthalpy can be a reliable and simple index for environmental thermal comfort analysis. That being said, further studies are necessary to confirm these findings, considering a longer time frame, more diverse hospitalization data, and other meteorological parameters, like wind speed and precipitation.