Speaker
Description
The July 2019 heatwave broke the official Belgian temperature record by 3°C, and it was the first time that a temperature above 40°C was measured anywhere in Belgium. Extreme heat stress is known to impact health and lead to increased mortality numbers. For Brussels alone, 112 people died during this 5-day event, of which 46.7 are estimated to be due to the elevated temperatures. With temperatures expected to increase in the future, this heatwave was used as a case study to answer the following question: How many deaths could have been prevented had adaptation strategies been in place?
Using the urban climate model WRF BEP-BEM, we incorporated three different adaptation scenarios: cool roofs (albedo of 0.85), a 20% relative increase of vegetation, and the combination of both. The results showed strong differences amongst urban morphologies, represented by Local Climate zones. Additionally, while maximum temperatures can be lowered most by only implementing cool roofs (2.7°C in compact urban areas and 2.1°C in open urban areas), the best strategy to lower minimum temperatures is the combination of cool roofs and increasing the green fraction (1.6°C in compact urban areas and 1.7°C in open urban areas). By lowering the air temperature, up to 25% of heat-related deaths could have been avoided.
| If your abstract is not accepted for an oral presentation, would you be interested in presenting it as a poster instead? | Yes |
|---|---|
| If accepted by the Scientific Board, I agree to have my presentation/poster and abstract published on the Belgian Climate Centre websites and social media. | Yes |
