IN-PERSON London. Section B

Abstract

Heat threats can vary across different demographic groups and environmental conditions. These social factors can contribute to a community’s capability to respond to natural hazards. For instance, specific groups of the population may be more vulnerable to heat risks, such as children and older people, people with physical difficulties, and economically vulnerable people. Therefore, we integrate social-demographic and socio-economic data with satellite imagery, to identify the areas where vulnerable populations are located. This study takes the latest census data as socioeconomic inputs in constructing heat vulnerability indices and applies it to the cases of Milton Keynes, a new planned city and Cambridge, an ancient city for comparison. Although vulnerability can be defined and assessed in numerous ways, this study applies Principle Component Analysis (PCA) to explore the interactions between exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity factors for characterizing heat vulnerability. The results reinforce the idea that drivers of heat vulnerability are very context-specific. In the case of Cambridge, accessibility to green spaces influences more on heat vulnerability. However, with the advantage of having abundant green spaces, conditions of economic deprivation are a bigger influence on heat vulnerability across space in Milton Keynes. The findings show that a mix of vulnerability components is required for assessment when addressing heat risks. Overall, this assessment approach can assist in social-related heat vulnerability mapping, and assist decision-makers in rethinking the high-priority areas for future adaptation strategies to explicitly embrace an environmental justice manner for sustainability.