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Abstract
Climate may significantly affect human society. Few studies have focused on the temperature impact on residents’ health, especially mental health status. This paper uses 98 423 observations in China to study the relationship between temperature and health, based on the China Family Panel Studies survey during 2010–16. We analyze the health effects of extreme hot and cold weather and compare the effects under different social demographic factors including gender, age, and income. We find that temperature and health status exhibit a nonlinear relationship. Women and low-income households are more likely to be impacted by extreme cold, whereas men, the elderly, and high-income households are more sensitive to extreme heat. Our results highlight the potential effects of extreme temperatures on physical and mental health and provide implications for future policy decisions to protect human health under a changing climate.
Abstract
Climate may significantly affect human society. Few studies have focused on the temperature impact on residents’ health, especially mental health status. This paper uses 98 423 observations in China to study the relationship between temperature and health, based on the China Family Panel Studies survey during 2010–16. We analyze the health effects of extreme hot and cold weather and compare the effects under different social demographic factors including gender, age, and income. We find that temperature and health status exhibit a nonlinear relationship. Women and low-income households are more likely to be impacted by extreme cold, whereas men, the elderly, and high-income households are more sensitive to extreme heat. Our results highlight the potential effects of extreme temperatures on physical and mental health and provide implications for future policy decisions to protect human health under a changing climate.
Abstract
The tourism sector plays a major role in the economic development of a number of countries in the global south, particularly southern Africa. One such country is Zimbabwe, which struggles with significant economic hardships and relies heavily on the tourism sector. The Victoria Falls, a key tourism attraction of Zimbabwe on the Zambezi River, was the subject of a plethora of news articles published between November 2019 and January 2020. The media suggested that the world’s largest waterfall had dried up as a result of climate change–induced drought. These reports arose during the dry season and were thus arguably ill founded and downplayed the natural seasonal characteristics of the Zambezi River. This paper presents content analysis of these media articles and the phenomenological qualitative data analysis of interviews conducted with tourism operators in Victoria Falls. Although some of the articles published within this period strived for accurate reporting, some articles claimed that the Victoria Falls was dry, which was inconsistent with experiences of tourism operators. This inaccurate reporting is argued by the tourism operators to have negatively affected the tourism sector and destination image of the key attraction. This paper highlights the need for accurate science-based media reporting on weather, climate, climate change, and the knowledge of the local tourism stakeholders within the tourism sector.
Abstract
The tourism sector plays a major role in the economic development of a number of countries in the global south, particularly southern Africa. One such country is Zimbabwe, which struggles with significant economic hardships and relies heavily on the tourism sector. The Victoria Falls, a key tourism attraction of Zimbabwe on the Zambezi River, was the subject of a plethora of news articles published between November 2019 and January 2020. The media suggested that the world’s largest waterfall had dried up as a result of climate change–induced drought. These reports arose during the dry season and were thus arguably ill founded and downplayed the natural seasonal characteristics of the Zambezi River. This paper presents content analysis of these media articles and the phenomenological qualitative data analysis of interviews conducted with tourism operators in Victoria Falls. Although some of the articles published within this period strived for accurate reporting, some articles claimed that the Victoria Falls was dry, which was inconsistent with experiences of tourism operators. This inaccurate reporting is argued by the tourism operators to have negatively affected the tourism sector and destination image of the key attraction. This paper highlights the need for accurate science-based media reporting on weather, climate, climate change, and the knowledge of the local tourism stakeholders within the tourism sector.
Abstract
The goal of this research was to examine students’ risk perception of hurricanes and hurricane-related storms to address a critical gap in the literature. Participants were asked to rate their perceptions of a tropical depression, tropical storm, and hurricanes from category 1 to category 5 on five dimensions and define the storms based on wind speed. Last, individual differences in sex and growing up on the coast were examined to determine whether they explain differences in risk perceptions. Findings showed that participants’ perceptions of category-1 through category-5 hurricanes followed a linear pattern, and each pair was perceived to be significantly different. However, participants rated tropical storm and tropical depression as more severe than a category-1 hurricane and were unable to define any of the storms based on wind speed. In fact, coastal natives were less accurate at defining the storms and believed the low-tier storms to be less severe than noncoastal natives. This research is the first to show that people implicitly understand the Saffir–Simpson scale that defines hurricanes into categories 1 through 5 but not the part of the scale that defines the lesser-tiered storms. The present work demonstrates a need for enhanced education of hurricanes, because students do not make important distinctions at the lower end of the hurricane scale.
Abstract
The goal of this research was to examine students’ risk perception of hurricanes and hurricane-related storms to address a critical gap in the literature. Participants were asked to rate their perceptions of a tropical depression, tropical storm, and hurricanes from category 1 to category 5 on five dimensions and define the storms based on wind speed. Last, individual differences in sex and growing up on the coast were examined to determine whether they explain differences in risk perceptions. Findings showed that participants’ perceptions of category-1 through category-5 hurricanes followed a linear pattern, and each pair was perceived to be significantly different. However, participants rated tropical storm and tropical depression as more severe than a category-1 hurricane and were unable to define any of the storms based on wind speed. In fact, coastal natives were less accurate at defining the storms and believed the low-tier storms to be less severe than noncoastal natives. This research is the first to show that people implicitly understand the Saffir–Simpson scale that defines hurricanes into categories 1 through 5 but not the part of the scale that defines the lesser-tiered storms. The present work demonstrates a need for enhanced education of hurricanes, because students do not make important distinctions at the lower end of the hurricane scale.
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in unprecedented challenges that dramatically affected the way of life in the United States and globally in 2020. The pandemic also made the process of protecting individuals from tornadoes more challenging, especially when their personal residence lacks suitable shelter, and particularly for residents of mobile homes. The necessity of having to shelter with other families—either in a public shelter or at another residence—to protect themselves from a tornado threat conflicted with the advice of public health officials who recommended avoiding public places and limiting contact with the public to minimize the spread of COVID-19. There was also a perception that protecting against one threat could amplify the other threat. A survey was undertaken with the public to determine the general viewpoint to see if that was indeed the case. The results found that it was possible to attenuate both threats provided that careful planning and actions were undertaken. Understanding how emergency managers should react and plan for such dual threats is important to minimize the spread of COVID-19 while also maintaining the safety of the public. Because there was no precedence for tornado protection scenarios amid a pandemic, both short-term and long-term recommendations were suggested that may also be useful in future pandemic situations.
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in unprecedented challenges that dramatically affected the way of life in the United States and globally in 2020. The pandemic also made the process of protecting individuals from tornadoes more challenging, especially when their personal residence lacks suitable shelter, and particularly for residents of mobile homes. The necessity of having to shelter with other families—either in a public shelter or at another residence—to protect themselves from a tornado threat conflicted with the advice of public health officials who recommended avoiding public places and limiting contact with the public to minimize the spread of COVID-19. There was also a perception that protecting against one threat could amplify the other threat. A survey was undertaken with the public to determine the general viewpoint to see if that was indeed the case. The results found that it was possible to attenuate both threats provided that careful planning and actions were undertaken. Understanding how emergency managers should react and plan for such dual threats is important to minimize the spread of COVID-19 while also maintaining the safety of the public. Because there was no precedence for tornado protection scenarios amid a pandemic, both short-term and long-term recommendations were suggested that may also be useful in future pandemic situations.
Abstract
Both the built environment and the natural environment have a physiological and psychological effect on human behavior, which potentially affects people’s sensitivity and tolerance to surrounding noise and leads to annoyance, nuisance, distress, or overt actions and aggressive behaviors such as noise complaints to people living nearby. This study aims to explore the extent to which weather conditions affect the prevalence of noise complaints between neighbors mediated through the neighborhood’s built environment. Using Brisbane, Australia, as a study case, we draw on a large-scale administrative dataset from 2016 to explore the monthly and seasonal variations of noise complaints between neighbors and employ a stepwise multiple regression to analyze the extent to which weather factors affect noise complaints. Our findings show that neighbors largely complain about noise made by animals, and such complaints most frequently appear in March–May, the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere. Built environment plays a primary role in noise complaints, and culturally diverse suburbs with less green space tend to have a higher likelihood of neighbor complaints in spring and summer; such a likelihood is further increased by a higher level of wind, humidity, and temperature in a yearly time frame. However, the effect of weather on animal- and non-animal-related noise complaints in different seasons is less consistent. Our findings, to a certain degree, reveal that weather conditions may serve as a psychological moderator to change people’s tolerance and sensitivity to noise, alter their routine activities and exposure to noise sources, and further affect the likelihood of noise complaints between neighbors.
Abstract
Both the built environment and the natural environment have a physiological and psychological effect on human behavior, which potentially affects people’s sensitivity and tolerance to surrounding noise and leads to annoyance, nuisance, distress, or overt actions and aggressive behaviors such as noise complaints to people living nearby. This study aims to explore the extent to which weather conditions affect the prevalence of noise complaints between neighbors mediated through the neighborhood’s built environment. Using Brisbane, Australia, as a study case, we draw on a large-scale administrative dataset from 2016 to explore the monthly and seasonal variations of noise complaints between neighbors and employ a stepwise multiple regression to analyze the extent to which weather factors affect noise complaints. Our findings show that neighbors largely complain about noise made by animals, and such complaints most frequently appear in March–May, the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere. Built environment plays a primary role in noise complaints, and culturally diverse suburbs with less green space tend to have a higher likelihood of neighbor complaints in spring and summer; such a likelihood is further increased by a higher level of wind, humidity, and temperature in a yearly time frame. However, the effect of weather on animal- and non-animal-related noise complaints in different seasons is less consistent. Our findings, to a certain degree, reveal that weather conditions may serve as a psychological moderator to change people’s tolerance and sensitivity to noise, alter their routine activities and exposure to noise sources, and further affect the likelihood of noise complaints between neighbors.
Abstract
As Inuit hunters living in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, we (N. Simonee and J. Alooloo) travel extensively on land, water, and sea ice. Climate change, including changing sea ice and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, has made it riskier and harder for us to travel and hunt safely. Inuit knowledge supporting safe travel is also changing and is shared less between generations. We increasingly use online weather, marine, and ice products to develop locally relevant forecasts. This helps us to make decisions according to wind, waves, precipitation, visibility, sea ice conditions, and floe edge location. We apply our forecasts and share them with fellow community members to support safe travel. In this paper, we share the approach that we developed from over a decade of systematically and critically assessing forecasting products such as Windy.com, weather and marine forecasts, tide tables, C-CORE’s floe edge monitoring service, SmartICE, Zoom Earth, and time-lapse cameras. We describe the strengths and challenges we face when accessing, interpreting, and applying each product throughout different seasons. Our analysis highlights a disconnect between available products and local needs. This disconnect can be overcome by service providers adjusting services to include more seasonal and real-time information, nontechnical language, familiar units of measurement, data size proportional to internet access cost and speed, and clear relationships between weather, marine, and ice information and safe travel. Our findings have potential relevance in the circumpolar Arctic and beyond, wherever people combine Indigenous weather forecasting methods and online information for decision-making. We encourage service providers to improve product relevance and accessibility.
Abstract
As Inuit hunters living in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, we (N. Simonee and J. Alooloo) travel extensively on land, water, and sea ice. Climate change, including changing sea ice and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, has made it riskier and harder for us to travel and hunt safely. Inuit knowledge supporting safe travel is also changing and is shared less between generations. We increasingly use online weather, marine, and ice products to develop locally relevant forecasts. This helps us to make decisions according to wind, waves, precipitation, visibility, sea ice conditions, and floe edge location. We apply our forecasts and share them with fellow community members to support safe travel. In this paper, we share the approach that we developed from over a decade of systematically and critically assessing forecasting products such as Windy.com, weather and marine forecasts, tide tables, C-CORE’s floe edge monitoring service, SmartICE, Zoom Earth, and time-lapse cameras. We describe the strengths and challenges we face when accessing, interpreting, and applying each product throughout different seasons. Our analysis highlights a disconnect between available products and local needs. This disconnect can be overcome by service providers adjusting services to include more seasonal and real-time information, nontechnical language, familiar units of measurement, data size proportional to internet access cost and speed, and clear relationships between weather, marine, and ice information and safe travel. Our findings have potential relevance in the circumpolar Arctic and beyond, wherever people combine Indigenous weather forecasting methods and online information for decision-making. We encourage service providers to improve product relevance and accessibility.
Abstract
Residents of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area are frequently threatened by tornadoes. Previous research indicates that perceptions of tornado threat affect behavioral choices when severe weather threatens and, as such, are important to study. In this paper, we examine the potential influence of tornado climatology on risk perception. Residents across central Oklahoma were surveyed about their perceptions of tornado proneness for their home location, and this was compared with the local tornado climatology. Mapping and programming tools were then used to identify relationships between respondents’ perceptions and actual tornado events. Research found that some dimensions of the climatology, such as tornado frequency, nearness, and intensity, have complex effects on risk perception. In particular, tornadoes that were intense, close, and recent had the strongest positive influence on risk perception, but weaker tornadoes appeared to produce an “inoculating” effect. Additional factors were influential, including sharp spatial discontinuities between neighboring places that were not tied to any obvious physical feature or the tornado climatology. Respondents holding lower perceptions of risk also reported lower rates of intention to prepare during tornado watches. By studying place-based perceptions, this research aims to provide a scientific basis for improved communication efforts before and during tornado events and for identifying vulnerable populations.
Abstract
Residents of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area are frequently threatened by tornadoes. Previous research indicates that perceptions of tornado threat affect behavioral choices when severe weather threatens and, as such, are important to study. In this paper, we examine the potential influence of tornado climatology on risk perception. Residents across central Oklahoma were surveyed about their perceptions of tornado proneness for their home location, and this was compared with the local tornado climatology. Mapping and programming tools were then used to identify relationships between respondents’ perceptions and actual tornado events. Research found that some dimensions of the climatology, such as tornado frequency, nearness, and intensity, have complex effects on risk perception. In particular, tornadoes that were intense, close, and recent had the strongest positive influence on risk perception, but weaker tornadoes appeared to produce an “inoculating” effect. Additional factors were influential, including sharp spatial discontinuities between neighboring places that were not tied to any obvious physical feature or the tornado climatology. Respondents holding lower perceptions of risk also reported lower rates of intention to prepare during tornado watches. By studying place-based perceptions, this research aims to provide a scientific basis for improved communication efforts before and during tornado events and for identifying vulnerable populations.
Abstract
Effective warning messages should tell people what they should do, how they should do it, and how to maximize their health and safety. Guidance essentially delivers two types of information: 1) information that instructs people about the actions to take in response to a threat and 2) information about how and why these recommended protective actions will reduce harm. However, recent research reported that while automated tornado warnings, sent by the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center via the account @NWStornado on Twitter, included useful information about the location of the threat, the potential impacts, and populations at risk, they failed to provide content that would contribute to successful protective actions. In this experimental study we investigate how the inclusion and presentation of protective action guidance affects participant perceptions of a tornado warning message and their perceived ability to act upon the information (i.e., self- and response efficacy). We find that the inclusion of protective action guidance results an increase in the participants’ understanding of the message, their ability to decide what to do, and their perceived self- and response efficacy. Knowing how to take action to protect oneself and believing the actions will make oneself safe are key motivators to taking action when faced with a significant threat. Future warning research should draw from other persuasive messaging and health behavior theories and should include self-efficacy and response efficacy as important causal factors. It should also look across additional hazards to determine if these outcomes differ by the length of forewarning and hazard type.
Abstract
Effective warning messages should tell people what they should do, how they should do it, and how to maximize their health and safety. Guidance essentially delivers two types of information: 1) information that instructs people about the actions to take in response to a threat and 2) information about how and why these recommended protective actions will reduce harm. However, recent research reported that while automated tornado warnings, sent by the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center via the account @NWStornado on Twitter, included useful information about the location of the threat, the potential impacts, and populations at risk, they failed to provide content that would contribute to successful protective actions. In this experimental study we investigate how the inclusion and presentation of protective action guidance affects participant perceptions of a tornado warning message and their perceived ability to act upon the information (i.e., self- and response efficacy). We find that the inclusion of protective action guidance results an increase in the participants’ understanding of the message, their ability to decide what to do, and their perceived self- and response efficacy. Knowing how to take action to protect oneself and believing the actions will make oneself safe are key motivators to taking action when faced with a significant threat. Future warning research should draw from other persuasive messaging and health behavior theories and should include self-efficacy and response efficacy as important causal factors. It should also look across additional hazards to determine if these outcomes differ by the length of forewarning and hazard type.
Abstract
Understanding tourists’ perceptions of climate is essential to improving tourist satisfaction and destination marketing. This paper constructs a sentiment analysis framework for tourists’ perceptions of climate using not only continuous climate data but also short-term weather data. Based on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, we found that Chinese tourists’ perceptions of climate change were at an initial stage of development. The accuracies of word segmentation between sentiment and nonsentiment words using ROST content mining (CM), BosonNLP, and GooSeeker were all high, and the three gradually decreased. The positively expressed sentences accounted for 79.80% of the entire text using ROST emotion analysis (EA), and the sentiment score was 0.784 at the intermediate level using artificial neural networks. The results indicate that the perceived emotional map is generally consistent with the actual climate and that cognitive evaluation theory is suitable to study text on climate perception.
Abstract
Understanding tourists’ perceptions of climate is essential to improving tourist satisfaction and destination marketing. This paper constructs a sentiment analysis framework for tourists’ perceptions of climate using not only continuous climate data but also short-term weather data. Based on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, we found that Chinese tourists’ perceptions of climate change were at an initial stage of development. The accuracies of word segmentation between sentiment and nonsentiment words using ROST content mining (CM), BosonNLP, and GooSeeker were all high, and the three gradually decreased. The positively expressed sentences accounted for 79.80% of the entire text using ROST emotion analysis (EA), and the sentiment score was 0.784 at the intermediate level using artificial neural networks. The results indicate that the perceived emotional map is generally consistent with the actual climate and that cognitive evaluation theory is suitable to study text on climate perception.
