Michal LEHNERT, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czechia
Veronika KVETONOVA, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czechia
Jan GELETIC, Department of Complex Systems, Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czechia
Jan KOPP, Department of Geography, Faculty of Economics, University of West Bohemia, Czechia
Marek BRABEC, Department of Statistical Modeling, Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czechia
Jiri PANEK, Department of Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czechia
Manifestation of climate change together with the effect of urban heat island threaten urban population with heat stress even in the moderate climate of Central Europe. These circumstances call for advanced urban planning approaches. Nevertheless, studies on thermal (dis)comfort and resulting heat stress in urban areas are mostly based only on the physical component – especially on air temperature and land surface temperature or more comprehensively on thermal exposure. Psychophysiological, behavioral and social components are usually neglected, even though they carry great importance in effective heat stress reduction. To improve our complex understanding of thermal (dis)comfort and resulting heat stress in urban areas we, apart from analyses of land surface temperature, implemented a method of metal mapping to identify locations prone to heat stress in two Czech cities. This contribution presents: 1) how mental maps may be used for identifying locations prone to heat stress and 2) how they may be helpful for finding effective heat stress reduction measures for particular urban neighbourhoods. Firstly, results of our study suggest that mental hotspots overlap with hotspots based on land surface temperature by less than half and that such differences are significant and spatially modulated. These findings are important towards identification of localities where placement of heat stress reduction measures should be as a matter of priority. Secondly, identified spatial differences in urban residents´ preferences to particular types of heat stress reduction measures, further elaborated in this contribution, demonstrate that the character of the place in interaction with psychophysiological, behavioral and social components of thermal comfort ought to be taken into account in planning effective heat stress reduction measures in urban areas.
Mots clés : adaptation measures|mental map|thermal comfort|urban climate|urban planning
A104399VK