Citation

Dang TN, Van DQ, Kusaka H, Seposo XT, Honda Y. Am. J. Public Health 2018; 108(S2): S137-S143.

Affiliation

Tran Ngoc Dang is with the Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Public Health, University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang City, Vietnam. Doan Quang Van and Hiroyuki Kusaka are with the Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan. Xerxes T. Seposo is with the Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. Yasushi Honda is with the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2017.304123

PMID

29072938

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To quantify heat-related deaths in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, caused by the urban heat island (UHI) and explore factors that may alleviate the impact of UHIs.

METHODS: We estimated district-specific meteorological conditions from 2010 to 2013 using the dynamic downscaling model and calculated the attributable fraction and number of mortalities resulting from the total, extreme, and mild heat in each district. The difference in attributable fraction of total heat between the central and outer districts was classified as the attributable fraction resulting from the UHI. The association among attributable fraction, attributable number with a green space, population density, and budget revenue of each district was then explored.

RESULTS: The temperature-mortality relationship between the central and outer areas was almost identical. The attributable fraction resulting from the UHI was 0.42%, which was contributed by the difference in temperature distribution between the 2 areas. Every 1-square-kilometer increase in green space per 1000 people can prevent 7.4 deaths caused by heat.

CONCLUSIONS: Green space can alleviate the impacts of UHIs, although future studies conducting a heath economic evaluation of tree planting are warranted. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print October 26, 2017: e1-e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.304123).

Language: en