August 2023 was the hottest in the historical series. Córdoba recorded the highest temperature in Andalusia and suffered 16 days of heat wave. How would a tourist spend visiting the historic center in those conditions?
To put data on the feeling of suffocation that was experienced during these days (and many others during the summer), researchers Manuel Ruiz de Adana and José Luis Sánchez Jiménez, from the TEP 974 group – Research Group in Applied Thermal Engineering from the University of Córdoba carried out an experimental evaluation of outdoor thermal comfort in a typical Cordoba tourist itinerary lasting three hours through the historic center of Córdoba.
The results showed extremely high levels of thermal stress in all bioclimatic indices, “which are those that allow us to estimate the thermal stress suffered by a person based on different environmental parameters,” explains Professor Manuel Ruiz from Adana.
Thus, in that walk through the Ribera area, Puente Romano, Mezquita, Alcázar and Calahorra between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. carried out on a normal summer day (July 6, 2023), a day with heat wave (June 28) and a day with greater heat intensity, called ‘super heat wave’ (August 10), very severe thermal stress values were recorded for the former and extreme values for the latter.
Taking into account that thermometers experience a more limited reality than humans, different bioclimatic indices were used to understand the reality of the human body on these walks. Among them, the Universal Thermal Climate Index, or UTCI for its acronym in English (Universal Thermal Climate Index), which is the most complete because “it adjusts very well to the thermoregulatory mechanism of an average person,” says the researcher.
The researchers used a mobile measuring pole that simulated the person taking that tourist walk through the center of Córdoba, capable of recording a complete set of climatic variables. During the journey, environmental conditions such as radiant temperature, ambient temperature, air speed and relative humidity were measured at three different heights: ankles, abdomen and head.
These measurements yielded UTCI values of 43º.9ºC for the “normal” summer day, 45.6ºC in the context of a heat wave and 48.8ºC during the ‘super heat wave’. As a reference, the thermal comfort limit on the UTCI scale is 26ºC. Taking into account that a person must maintain a body temperature between 36ºC and 38ºC, these data show that “for an average person there are serious associated risks and danger due to heat stroke in these conditions” says Ruiz de Adana. “We must remember that for each degree that the ambient temperature exceeds these thresholds, the risk of mortality attributable to high temperatures increases between 9.1% and 10.7%, that is, for each day that there is an episode of extreme heat, mortality increases, on average, by 3 deaths a day.”
These results highlight the need to carry out interventions to improve the urban environment and promote greater outdoor thermal comfort for those who live in the city through measures such as green infrastructure or shading that, in addition, mitigate the ‘island effect’. heat’ (the increase in temperatures that occurs in the city with respect to the non-urban environment).
In a context of climate change with increasing temperatures and increasingly frequent heat waves with results such as an increase in deaths due to heat (13,320 deaths attributable to heat during the summer of 2023), these types of studies advance the understanding of the causes. and effects of thermal stress. Along these lines, the research team proposes to evaluate thermal stress on other routes in Córdoba and the effectiveness of different mitigation measures using experimental measurements, external thermal stress simulation tools and the use of external thermal stress measurement robots.
Reference
Sanchez Jimenez, JL; Ruiz de Adana, M. Assessment of Outdoor Thermal Comfort in a Hot Summer Region of Europe. Atmosphere 2024, 15, 214. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15020214
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