The development of the Hong Kong Heat Index for enhancing the heat stress information service of the Hong Kong Observatory
Publication in refereed journal
CUHK Authors
Full Text
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) |
Altmetrics Information
.
Other information
AbstractThis paper presents a study to develop a heat index, for use in hot and humid sub-tropical climate in Hong Kong. The study made use of hospitalization data and heat stress measurement data in Hong Kong from 2007 to 2011. The heat index, which is called Hong Kong Heat Index (HKHI), is calculated from the natural wet bulb temperature, the globe temperature, and the dry bulb temperature together with a set of coefficients applicable to the high humidity condition in the summer of Hong Kong. Analysis of the response of hospitalization rate to variation in HKHI and two other heat indices, namely Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) and Net Effective Temperature (NET), revealed that HKHI performed generally better than WBGT and NET in reflecting the heat stress impact on excess hospitalization ratio in Hong Kong. Based on the study results, two reference criteria of HKHI were identified to establish a two-tier approach for the enhancement of the heat stress information service in Hong Kong.
All Author(s) ListLee KL, Chan YH, Lee TC, Goggins WB, Chan EYY
Journal nameInternational Journal of Biometeorology
Year2016
Month7
Day1
Volume Number60
Issue Number7
PublisherSPRINGER
Pages1029 - 1039
ISSN0020-7128
eISSN1432-1254
LanguagesEnglish-United Kingdom
KeywordsHeat index; Heat stress; Hospitalization; Hot; Wet bulb globe temperature
Web of Science Subject CategoriesBiophysics; Environmental Sciences; Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences; Physiology
