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The impact of heat waves on surface urban heat island and local economy in Cluj-Napoca city, Romania

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Abstract

The association between heat waves and the urban heat island effect can increase the impact on environment and society inducing biophysical hazards. Heat stress and their associated public health problems are among the most frequent. This paper explores the heat waves impact on surface urban heat island and on the local economy loss during three heat periods in Cluj-Napoca city in the summer of 2015. The heat wave events were identified based on daily maximum temperature, and they were divided into three classes considering the intensity threshold: moderate heat waves (daily maximum temperature exceeding the 90th percentile), severe heat waves (daily maximum temperature over the 95th percentile), and extremely severe heat waves (daily maximum temperature exceeding the 98th percentile). The minimum length of an event was of minimum three consecutive days. The surface urban heat island was detected based on land surface temperature derived from Landsat 8 thermal infrared data, while the economic impact was estimated based on data on work force structure and work productivity in Cluj-Napoca derived from the data released by Eurostat, National Bank of Romania, and National Institute of Statistics. The results indicate that the intensity and spatial extension of surface urban heat island could be governed by the magnitude of the heat wave event, but due to the low number of satellite images available, we should consider this information only as preliminary results. Thermal infrared remote sensing has proven to be a very efficient method to study surface urban heat island, due to the fact that the synoptic conditions associated with heat wave events usually favor cloud free image. The resolution of the OLI_TIRS sensor provided good results for a mid-extension city, but the low revisiting time is still a drawback. The potential economic loss was calculated for the working days during heat waves and the estimated loss reached more than 2.5 mil. EUR for each heat wave day at city scale, cumulating more than 38 mil. EUR for the three cases considered.

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Acknowledgements

This research was developed under the framework of the project Extreme weather events related to air temperature and precipitation in Romania, project code PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0736, funded by the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development, and Innovation (UEFISCDI) in Romania. The work was also partially supported by the Sectorial Operational Program for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132400 titled Young successful researchers—professional development in an international and interdisciplinary environment. The authors acknowledge the USGS for freely provided LANDSAT 8 imagery, the reliable prognosis 5 days for weather data for Cluj-Napoca weather station, the National Bank of Romania, the National Institute of Statistics, and Eurostat for freely provided economic data. The authors bring kind acknowledgements to the three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions, which helped us to improve the quality of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7, Clinicilor Street, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Ioana Herbel, Cristina Florina Roşca, Gabriela Victoria Harpa, Antoniu-Flavius Ciupertea & Ionuţ Rus

  2. Faculty of Geography, Department of Physical and Technical Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7, Clinicilor Street, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Adina-Eliza Croitoru

  3. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Political Economy, Babeş-Bolyai University, 58-60, Teodor Mihali Street, 400591, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Adina Viorica Rus

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  1. Ioana Herbel
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Correspondence to Adina-Eliza Croitoru.

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Herbel, I., Croitoru, AE., Rus, A.V. et al. The impact of heat waves on surface urban heat island and local economy in Cluj-Napoca city, Romania. Theor Appl Climatol 133, 681–695 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2196-4

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