Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
external climates, the building envelope and the HVAC system and the corre-
sponding energy consumption. It has played an important role in the develop-
ment of simple design tools and building energy efficiency codes. This
technique has also been used by a number of researchers to assess the impact of
climate change on energy use in buildings. Gaterell and McEvoy (
2005
)
assessed the impact of projected climate changes on the thermal performance of
the built environment and the measures implemented to improve such perfor-
mance. The air temperatures were raised by 2 and 2.9 C to reflect the climate in
2050, and by 2.3 and 5.9 C in 2100 in a study by Radhi (
2009
) to investigate
the potential impact of global warming on residential buildings in United Arab
Emirates. It was concluded that global warming was likely to increase the
energy used for cooling by 23.5 % with a 5.9 C increase in the ambient tem-
perature. It was also found that energy design measures, such as thermal insu-
lation and building thermal mass, were important to cope with global warming.
3.2.3 Climate Change, Pollution and Health in Cities
Excess morbidity and mortality related to extremely hot weather and poor air
quality are found in cities worldwide. This is a major public health concern for
cities now and looking towards the future, because the interactions of global climate
change, urban heat islands and air pollution are predicted to place increasing health
burdens on cities. The proposed mitigation and adaptation strategies in cities'
climate risk management plans may produce health co-benefits by reducing
emissions and cooling temperatures through changes in the built environment.
There are challenges, however, to implementing the plans and the most widely
documented beneficial policy to date is the adoption of heat warning and air quality
alert systems to trigger emergency responses (Harlan and Ruddell
2011
).
As the largest developing country, China has been changing rapidly over the
last three decades and its economic expansion is largely driven by the use of fossil
fuels, which leads to a dramatic increase in emissions of both ambient air pollu-
tants and GHGs. China is now facing the worst air pollution problem in the world
and is also the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. A number of epidemiological
studies on air pollution and population health have been conducted in China, using
time-series, case-crossover, cross-sectional, cohort, panel or intervention designs.
The increased health risks observed among Chinese population are somewhat
lower in magnitude, per amount of pollution, than the risks found in developed
countries. However, the importance of these increased health risks is greater than
that in North America or Europe, because the levels of air pollution in China are
very high in general and Chinese population accounts for more than one-fourth of
the world's totals. Meanwhile, evidence is mounting that climate change has
already affected human health directly and indirectly in China, including mortality
from extreme weather events; changes in air and water quality; and changes in the
ecology of infectious diseases. If China acts to reduce the combustion of fossil
