Investigating the dynamic pattern of regional heat health risks: A case study of Guangdong Province, China

Abstract

In the coming decades, cities will face more frequent, intense, and prolonged heatwave events. Against this background, a deep understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of heat risks during heatwave events is needed to facilitate effective mitigation measures. However, few studies have gone beyond the static mapping of heat risks to investigate the hourly dynamic of heat risks during heatwave events. To fill this gap, this study uses Guangdong Province, China, as the study area to investigate the dynamic pattern of heat risks throughout a series of heatwave events. Tencent mobile phone locating request data is leveraged to indicate the dynamic distribution of the population. Crichton's risk triangle of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability is also applied to generate heat risk maps at hourly intervals. The results suggest a temporal heterogeneity exists between daytime and nighttime heat risks in Guangdong. Moreover, urban areas in the peripheral region and the urban-rural transition area bear a higher percentage of territory-wide heat risks than the percentage of the population it's hosting throughout the heatwave events. The findings of this study provide implications for the development of heat warning systems, heat-health action plans, and policies that aim to reduce regional inequality in heat risks.