Title:
Environmental and health impacts of extreme heat events

dc.contributor.advisor Mulholland, James A.
dc.contributor.author Vaidyanathan, Ambarish
dc.contributor.committeeMember Hu, Yongtao
dc.contributor.committeeMember Russell, Armistead G.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Bergin, Michael H.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Goodman, Seymour E.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Kegler, Scott R.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Qualters, Judith R.
dc.contributor.department Civil and Environmental Engineering
dc.date.accessioned 2015-09-21T15:53:00Z
dc.date.available 2015-09-22T05:30:07Z
dc.date.created 2014-08
dc.date.issued 2014-06-30
dc.date.submitted August 2014
dc.date.updated 2015-09-21T15:53:00Z
dc.description.abstract In the United States (U.S.), extreme temperature-related deaths account for far more deaths than hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. An extreme heat event (EHE) or a heat wave is a sustained period of substantially hotter and/or more humid weather. EHEs cause a wide range of health problems such as rashes, cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and, in some instances, death. Further, meteorology plays a dominant role in the formation of air pollutants. In particular, extremely high temperatures are conducive to the formation of certain air pollutants. In order to understand the adverse health impacts of extreme heat and air pollution levels prevailing during EHEs, it is necessary to define what constitutes a heat episode; however, there is a lack of scientific consensus on definitions and procedures to accurately identify EHEs. This work employs a hierarchical clustering technique to group 92 different EHE definitions into homogeneous sets and uses negative binomial rate regression approach to identify those definitions that are most strongly associated with mortality. Our findings suggest that definitions with thresholds that are either too extreme or too moderate are poorly associated with heat-related mortality for most climate regions. Additionally, the association between air pollution and health, especially mortality, is well understood. However, the role of air pollutants in modifying the relationship between EHEs and mortality is not well characterized in the U.S., yet is critical to generating accurate estimates of health burden. Our results indicate that air pollution confounds the relationship between EHE and mortality, and the extent of confounding varies with climate regions. Further, through this work, the sensitivities associated with selecting an EHE definition is taken into consideration when providing region-specific health and economic burden associated with EHEs. Ideally, the excess deaths and costs presented in this work could be useful to study and quantify the public health risk associated with EHEs, either in a prospective or a retrospective setting.
dc.description.degree Ph.D.
dc.embargo.terms 2015-08-01
dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/54021
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject Air quality
dc.subject Extreme heat events
dc.subject Public health
dc.subject Cluster analysis
dc.subject Regression analysis
dc.title Environmental and health impacts of extreme heat events
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Mulholland, James A.
local.contributor.corporatename School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 5a9d5952-ce03-49f6-81f0-b0681cc8ffa0
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 88639fad-d3ae-4867-9e7a-7c9e6d2ecc7c
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
thesis.degree.level Doctoral
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