Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
New research from Penn State University found specific urban factors can reduce the "urban heat island" (UHI) effect, which is the tendency of cities to trap heat.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Buildings, suggests trees can cool air temperatures, mean radiant temperature and "predicted mean vote index," which is what researchers use to evaluate thermal comfort levels.
Additionally, higher building-height-to-street-width ratios, where taller buildings provide shade to narrower streets, and pavement that is better at reflecting sunlight contribute to lower temperatures and greater comfort levels.
According to Guangqing Chi, professor of rural sociology, demography, and public health sciences at the College of Agricultural Sciences, the findings can help encourage cities to plan more effectively, particularly for low-income communities, people of colour and the elderly, who are disproportionately affected by the UHI effect.
“Global warming makes some human habitats unbearably hot, but more so for socially and historically disadvantaged communities,” Chi explained in a news release published on Friday. “This interdisciplinary project provides an effective, equitable urban design solution for enhancing resilience against extreme heating.”
The study, which is a collaboration between College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of the Arts and Architecture’s Hamer Center for Community Design in the Stuckeman School, focused on Philadelphia.
According to the researchers, the city experiences high rates of both poverty and extreme weather with 22.8 per cent of people in the city living below the poverty level. The city also has experienced extreme weather events, such as its snowiest winter, two warmest summers, wettest day, and two wettest years on record since 2010.
"Heat island hotspots and mortality rates tend to be greater in urban blocks with a socially disadvantaged population,” Farzad Hashemi, a Hamer Center researcher, said in the news release. “This is due to the combination of physical factors, such as impervious surfaces and lack of vegetation, and social factors, such as vulnerability to heat-related health effects.”
For this study, researchers used the social vulnerability index (SVI) as well as data about tree coverage to identify two Philadelphia neighbourhoods—one with the lowest SVI and high tree coverage, and another with the highest SVI and the lowest tree coverage.
Researchers analyzed several characteristics of the neighbourhoods including construction materials, land cover, how well pavement reflects sunlight and heat generated by human activities, among others. Researchers also ran 24-hour simulations for six scenarios—winter, spring, summer, fall, extreme hot and extreme cold—in each neighborhood to see how different factors affected each other.
Researchers found the trees’ cooling effect is limited to their immediate surroundings, while areas without trees had significantly higher mean radiant temperatures. Additionally, the effect of trees on air temperature decreased as distance from areas with many trees increased.
Chi said these findings suggest ways urban climate knowledge can contribute to better city planning and design.
“For example, using taller and denser buildings alongside pavement surfaces with higher albedo could be considered to support more comfortable thermal conditions, particularly in urban blocks with less vegetation coverage,” Chi said. “Overall, the study highlights the importance of considering urban morphology and vegetation coverage in the design of sustainable and livable urban environments.”
Hashemi said the study can form the basis for more in-depth research in the future.
“Our study focused on Philadelphia, which is in the U.S. Northeast region,” he said. “Expanding the data to incorporate more cities from other climate zones, including hot and dry or extremely cold, could give us a better understanding of the effects of urban properties on varying climates and social vulnerability indexes.”
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.