A Study of The Relationship Between Bioclimatic Comfort Zones And Land Use: The Case of Sivas Province (Turkey)

The aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between bioclimatic comfort zones and land use in Sivas province. In this context, the relationship between the climatic data of 1990 and 2018 and the land use data of Sivas province belonging to the same years was evaluated as seasonal and annual periods. The bioclimatic comfort zones in the study area were determined depending on environmental climatic parameters (ECP) [temperature (T), relative humidity (RH) and wind speed (WS)] and bioclimatic indices [Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), Thermo Hygrometric Index (THI), and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI)]. The values of the environmental climate parameters of Sivas province for the relevant years were obtained from 9 meteorological stations, the height of which varies between 1121 m and 1528 m. With the help of the Geographical Information System (GIS), the spatial distribution of the bioclimatic comfort zones determined depending on the environmental climate parameters and bioclimatic indices were created. Land use maps of the study area for reference years were obtained by using CORINE land cover data. The relationship between bioclimatic comfort zones and land use was also determined with the help of GIS. According to the results of this study; It was determined that the land use type in which the bioclimatically comfortable areas overlap in Sivas province differs according to the used parameter/indexes, years and annual periods.

Climate in tourism’s research agenda: future directions based on literature review

One of the major challenges’ tourism faces today is climate change, which inevitably involves adjusting many destinations and tourists to new scenarios. For that, a literature review about the link between tourism and climate is mandatory. Therefore, the present paper aims to establish the evolution of the relationship between tourism and climate, since relevant studies were published from 1940 to 2020. A bibliometric analysis using qualitative and quantitative methods were used for measuring the coverage ratio of tourism and climate (change) in spatial-temporal studies. Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases were used to carry out an in-depth analysis based on 889 publications related to tourism climatology. These were synthesized in attributes and codes (e.g. location, journal name, geographic level, methods of analysis, results, implications, and trends). It is true that in the context of tourism research, themes and assumptions give or take a few exceptions, remain constant. Most of the 889 studies analyzed focused on climatological hotspots, such as impacts of climate change on tourism (28.4%) and urban and bioclimatic comfort of tourists in affected destinations (13.2%), with a lower coverage of tourism-related topics such as policies of climate change in tourism (6.1%) or strategies and concrete options to re-enable tourist destinations for climate change (0.2%). The research methods, procedures and results can contribute to advance tourism climatology to a new phase of theoretical and practical application for tourism planning.

Thermal stress assessment for an Arctic city in summer

Despite the fact, that against the background of global warming the Russian Arctic is still a region with severe winters and cool summers; the likelihood of thermal stress conditions in summer is also increasing. At the same time, urban conditions can significantly affect the human heat perception due to the appearance of the urban heat island effect and other factors. Using the example of the city of Nadym (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), the authors have assessed the possibility of the summer urban heat stress occurrence and analyzed its spatial heterogeneity. The article presents the detailed modeling results of the meteorological regime of the city within the framework of the COSMO-CLM model and the assessment of bioclimatic comfort using the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) index and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). During periods of the extremely hot weather events in Nadym, the territory meso- and microclimatic mosaicism clearly manifests itself. In anthropogenically altered territories, the frequency of strong heat stress events can exceed that in the background areas by 1.7 times. Urban planning solutions should take into account not only the climatic resistance of Arctic cities to the winter cold, but also be adapted to the occurrence of summer heat.

Assessment of bioclimatic sensitive spatial planning in a Turkish city, Eskisehir

The city of Eskişehir is located in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey, where harsh continental climatic characteristics are prevalent i.e. cold winters and hot summers. Quality and quantity of research studies on bioclimatic comfort or outdoor thermal environment as a subject have long been increasing all over the world and in Turkey in recent years (for nearly 20 years). Outdoor bioclimatic comfort conditions, which are counted to be among the human quality of life indicators in an urban environment together with other physical, social and economic ones such as air quality, GDP, social activity possibilities, help cities make urban spaces more livable and are now used as a concrete value instead of mean values of some climatic elements in order to give an idea about the climatic conditions of a city. It was aimed in the present research study to determine 1) hourly bioclimatic comfort conditions in Eskişehir city center during sultry summer days considering bioclimatic comfort values calculated according to the 12-year data obtained between 2007 and 2018 from the meteorological stations representing urban (U; Regional Meteorology Administration Station surrounded by a densely structured area), semiurban (SU; Anadolu University Meteorology Station) and rural (R; Eskişehir Airport Meteorology Station) areas using physiological equivalent temperature index (PET) and RayMan software in the hottest months of the year (between May and September; 5 months), 2) spatial distribution of these comfort values in decades (ten – day intervals) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS; ArcGIS 10.1 software program and raster maps taking into consideration elevation and land use and 3) what urban design and planning principles might be adopted against the adverse thermal comfort conditions triggered by urban heat island (UHI) effect. It was seen as a result of the study that the poorest comfort conditions are provided in urban area (U; the sultriest area) while the rural area (R) is the most advantageous one for the comfort conditions. New bioclimate – sensitive urban design principles were taken into consideration to create bioclimatically more comfortable areas i.e. out of heat stress, windier and less humid sites open to prevalent wind direction.

Estimation of the spatial climate comfort distribution using tourism climate index (TCI) and inverse distance weighting (IDW) (case study: Fars Province, Iran)

This article was conducted to perform a temporal and spatial analysis in order to identify suitable climatic regions for tourism. We investigated tourism climate conditions in Fars province from 2006 to 2016 using tourism climate index (TCI). Also, modified inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation is applied to generate the optimal spatial pattern of the TCI distribution. The relationship between the interpolation accuracy and a critical IDW parameter, called power value (β), was evaluated for optimization. The results revealed that during four months of May, April, October, and November, 70–83% of cities in Fars province show excellent and ideal climatic comfort. In the four months of July, December, January, and March, about 45–54% of Fars province provide good and very good conditions for tourism activities. The spatial distribution of TCI also shows that the cities in the northern part generally have the most desirable conditions during the hot season, while the southern cities of Fars province are more suitable for tourism during the cold season. Also, analysis of optimization steps demonstrated that power value (β) affects interpolation accuracy. As our study suggests, using the optimal power values (β) of 1 and 2 can lead to optimal spatial interpolation of the TCI distribution. Overall, we found IDW and TCI as reliable tools for assessing bioclimatic comfort conditions, considering β-value as an influential factor that should be evaluated to achieve optimal interpolation results.

Characterization of the 2017 Summer Heat Waves and Their Effects on the Population of an Area of Southern Italy

Knowledge of bioclimatic comfort is paramount for improving people’s quality of life. To this purpose, several studies related to climatic comfort/discomfort have been recently published. These studies mainly focus on the analysis of temperature and relative humidity, i.e., the main variables influencing the environmental stress in the human body. In this context, the present work aims to analyze the number of visits to the hospital emergency department made by the inhabitants of the Crati River valley (Calabria region, southern Italy) during the heat waves that accompanied the African anticyclone in the summer of 2017. The analysis of the bioclimatic comfort was performed using the humidity index. Results showed that greater the index, the higher the number of accesses to the emergency department, in particular by the most vulnerable population groups, such as children and the elderly.

Assessment of bioclimatic comfort of the Krasnodar Territory, Russia through the application of GIS‐technologies

Aim. To determine the most and least comfortable zones of the Krasnodar Territory by month.Material and Methods. The bioclimatic indices studied take into account the combined influences of temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and solar radiation in various combinations. A geoinformation analysis of the following bioclimatic indices was carried out: effective temperature, equivalent-effective temperature, bioclimatically active temperature, radiation equivalent-effective temperature, and a complex indicator of the level of pathogenic effects of weather in the Krasnodar Territory. The weather pathogenicity index is the only index in the article that takes into account atmospheric pressure. The study also added an assessment of the severity of winter. The following indices of “cold stress” were calculated and mapped: integrated cooling index (frostbite), Bodman climate severity index, Siple-Passel cooling index and wind-cold index.Results. The Krasnodar Territory was divided into 4 comfort zones: Azov-Black Sea, Black Sea, South-Eastern Foothills and Continental.Conclusions. Comfortable months have been established for living in the Krasnodar Territory as a whole, and areas of the Krasnodar Territory favourable for life at any time of the year. The severity of winter in the Krasnodar Territory as shown by the analysis is closely correlated with wind strength.

A tropical field study on outdoor bioclimatic comfort of people with different thermal histories

Several studies reported that the long-term thermal history of the human body affects its thermal comfort and preferences. We conducted a tropical field study in Sanya city, China; 1512 questionnaires were collected from tourists. The tourists had five thermal histories associated with five different climate regions (cold, severely cold, hot summer, cold winter, hot summer and warm winter and temperate regions). Our results showed that the human body's long-term thermal history had distinct influences on their thermal sensation, thermal comfort and preferences at their destination. Greater difference in a subject's thermal history from that of the tourist destination showed greater difference in the bioclimatic comfort and thermal preference. The neutral physiological equivalent temperature (nPET) of tourists with thermal histories in the severely cold and cold regions was 25.6°C and 25.9°C, respectively. The nPET was 1.4°C and 1.7°C higher than that of the temperate regions, respectively. The relationship between thermal acceptability vote and thermal comfort vote showed that the tourists with thermal histories in the severely cold and cold regions were more sensitive to environmental changes than those with histories from the other regions.