HR: 0800h
AN: GC51D-1096    [Abstracts]
TI: Assessing Benefits and Costs of Adaptive and Mitigative Strategies for Climate in Urban Areas
AU: * Rosenthal, J K
EM: jr438@columbia.edu
AF: Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Urban Planning Program, Avery Hall, New York, NY 10027 United States
AU: Kinney, P L
EM: plk3@columbia.edu
AF: Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, Div. Environmental Health Sciences, 60 Haven Ave, B1, New York, NY 10032 United States
AB: Over the next five decades, climate change is projected to have adverse impacts on human health in temperate regions such as North America. Urban areas within temperate regions may warm disproportionately compared to tropical and subtropical zones according to the IPCC Special Report on The Regional Impacts of Climate Change, and the frequency of very hot days in these climates is expected to approximately double for an increase of 2-3øC in the average summer temperature. Interventions in the built environment to promote urban heat island mitigation can reduce ambient temperatures, potentially reducing heat-related mortality rates in vulnerable populations, electricity consumption and air pollutant emissions, and slow ozone formation, an important health stressor. These mitigation measures may also serve as adaptive responses to a range of potential future climate conditions. We review studies that attempt to quantify health and environmental benefits in US cities from these interventions in the built environment, and discuss the techniques and potential benefits of measures that may serve as both adaptive responses to current conditions and mitigation for potential future increased climate variability.
DE: 9800 GENERAL OR MISCELLANEOUS
DE: 6304 Benefit-cost analysis
DE: 6329 Project evaluation
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting