88
M. D. Setiawati et al.
6.1 Introduction
6.1.1 Increasing Heat Stress and Its Health Effects
Human health is highly sensitive to thermal environment (WHO 2008). The risk
of heat exposure is a growing concern in the urban areas which have been already
experiencing heat island effect, yet imminent to increase in the future (Tomlinson
et al. 2011a, b). Furthermore, the increasing exposure to heat can potentially bring
economic losses through reduced productivity (Kjellstrom and Meng 2016) and
morbidity (Robine et al. 2008). Exposure to such heat, which adds stress to human
health, is an extremely critical issue that needs to be tackled, as it causes a range
of health impacts such as heatstroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramp, increased risk of
kidney diseases, reduced concentration and work efficiency (Monazzam et al. 2014)
(Jay and Kenny 2010). Vulnerability to heat stress, however, vary on physical and
social conditions as other studies demonstrated (Reid et al. 2009; Coutts et al. 2007;
Wolf and McGregor 2013; Kim et al. 2011).
Most developing countries are at risk against climate change impact, despite not
contributing the majority of greenhouse gasses emission (Lundgren et al. 2013). As
a prominent example is Indonesia, whereas its carbon dioxide emission rate is below
the world average (World Bank 2016) and yet has been experiencing high impacts
of extreme temperature events. Indonesia is a tropic country where inter-annual
temperature variability is low. However, the number of very hot days is foreseen
to increase the most (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2018). In Borneo and Sumatra islands,
Indonesia, there was spatially consistent trend of increasing warm nights and days of
climatic data between the late 1960 and 2003 (Alexander et al. 2006). Such abnormal
events will be more frequent in the future. Under the most severe RCP8.5 scenario,
Indonesia was projected to have three heat waves in the period of 2020–2052, and
these heatwaves were projected as frequent as every two years during the period
of years between 2068 and 2100 (Russo et al. 2014). Moreover, any increase in
global temperature is projected to have a negative impact on human health including
heat-related mortality and morbidity and cities are special concern which has the
potential to be hotter due to urban heat islands effect (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2018).
Furthermore, the heat exposure causes potential economic losses to Indonesia, with
estimated loss amount of 250 billion US, equivalent to GDP loss of 6 percent, by the
year 2030 (Kjellstrom and Meng 2016).
6.2 Approaches to Measure Heat Stress and Vulnerability
Heat stress is a condition when our body is unable to maintain a healthy temperature.
The quantitative assessment of heat stress has been introduced in a form of heat stress
indices. Existing variety of heat stress indices are applied as tools for assessing heat
stress but they are limited to basic environmental parameters on human response in the
M. D. Setiawati et al.
6.1 Introduction
6.1.1 Increasing Heat Stress and Its Health Effects
Human health is highly sensitive to thermal environment (WHO 2008). The risk
of heat exposure is a growing concern in the urban areas which have been already
experiencing heat island effect, yet imminent to increase in the future (Tomlinson
et al. 2011a, b). Furthermore, the increasing exposure to heat can potentially bring
economic losses through reduced productivity (Kjellstrom and Meng 2016) and
morbidity (Robine et al. 2008). Exposure to such heat, which adds stress to human
health, is an extremely critical issue that needs to be tackled, as it causes a range
of health impacts such as heatstroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramp, increased risk of
kidney diseases, reduced concentration and work efficiency (Monazzam et al. 2014)
(Jay and Kenny 2010). Vulnerability to heat stress, however, vary on physical and
social conditions as other studies demonstrated (Reid et al. 2009; Coutts et al. 2007;
Wolf and McGregor 2013; Kim et al. 2011).
Most developing countries are at risk against climate change impact, despite not
contributing the majority of greenhouse gasses emission (Lundgren et al. 2013). As
a prominent example is Indonesia, whereas its carbon dioxide emission rate is below
the world average (World Bank 2016) and yet has been experiencing high impacts
of extreme temperature events. Indonesia is a tropic country where inter-annual
temperature variability is low. However, the number of very hot days is foreseen
to increase the most (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2018). In Borneo and Sumatra islands,
Indonesia, there was spatially consistent trend of increasing warm nights and days of
climatic data between the late 1960 and 2003 (Alexander et al. 2006). Such abnormal
events will be more frequent in the future. Under the most severe RCP8.5 scenario,
Indonesia was projected to have three heat waves in the period of 2020–2052, and
these heatwaves were projected as frequent as every two years during the period
of years between 2068 and 2100 (Russo et al. 2014). Moreover, any increase in
global temperature is projected to have a negative impact on human health including
heat-related mortality and morbidity and cities are special concern which has the
potential to be hotter due to urban heat islands effect (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2018).
Furthermore, the heat exposure causes potential economic losses to Indonesia, with
estimated loss amount of 250 billion US, equivalent to GDP loss of 6 percent, by the
year 2030 (Kjellstrom and Meng 2016).
6.2 Approaches to Measure Heat Stress and Vulnerability
Heat stress is a condition when our body is unable to maintain a healthy temperature.
The quantitative assessment of heat stress has been introduced in a form of heat stress
indices. Existing variety of heat stress indices are applied as tools for assessing heat
stress but they are limited to basic environmental parameters on human response in the