Ekaterina Bogdanovich, L. Guenther, M. Reichstein, D. Frank, Georg Ruhrmann, A. Brenning, J. Denissen, R. Orth
{"title":"Societal attention to heat waves can indicate public health impacts","authors":"Ekaterina Bogdanovich, L. Guenther, M. Reichstein, D. Frank, Georg Ruhrmann, A. Brenning, J. Denissen, R. Orth","doi":"10.1175/wcas-d-22-0147.1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\nBoth the frequency and intensity of hot temperature extremes are expected to increase in the coming decades, challenging various socio-economic sectors including public health. Thereby, societal attention data available in real time, such as Google search attention, could help monitor heat wave impacts in domains with lagged data availability. Here, we jointly analyze societal attention and health impacts of heat waves in Germany at weekly time scales. We find that Google search attention responds similar to hot temperatures as indicators of public health impacts; represented by excess mortality and hospitalizations. This emerges from piecewise linear relationships of Google search attention and health impacts to temperature. We can then determine temperature thresholds above which both attention and public health are affected by heat. More generally, given the clear and similar response of societal indicators to heat, we conclude that heat waves can and should be defined from a joint societal and meteorological perspective, whereby temperatures are compared with thresholds established using societal data. A better joint understanding of societal attention and health impacts offers the potential to better manage future heat waves.","PeriodicalId":48971,"journal":{"name":"Weather Climate and Society","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Weather Climate and Society","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1175/wcas-d-22-0147.1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Both the frequency and intensity of hot temperature extremes are expected to increase in the coming decades, challenging various socio-economic sectors including public health. Thereby, societal attention data available in real time, such as Google search attention, could help monitor heat wave impacts in domains with lagged data availability. Here, we jointly analyze societal attention and health impacts of heat waves in Germany at weekly time scales. We find that Google search attention responds similar to hot temperatures as indicators of public health impacts; represented by excess mortality and hospitalizations. This emerges from piecewise linear relationships of Google search attention and health impacts to temperature. We can then determine temperature thresholds above which both attention and public health are affected by heat. More generally, given the clear and similar response of societal indicators to heat, we conclude that heat waves can and should be defined from a joint societal and meteorological perspective, whereby temperatures are compared with thresholds established using societal data. A better joint understanding of societal attention and health impacts offers the potential to better manage future heat waves.
期刊介绍:
Weather, Climate, and Society (WCAS) publishes research that encompasses economics, policy analysis, political science, history, and institutional, social, and behavioral scholarship relating to weather and climate, including climate change. Contributions must include original social science research, evidence-based analysis, and relevance to the interactions of weather and climate with society.