Co-occurrence of urban heat and the COVID-19: Impacts, drivers, methods, and implications for the post-pandemic era. (March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Wei; He, Bao-Jie
• Is Part Of: Sustainable cities and society. Volume 90(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-03
• Subjects: Urban heat -- Pandemic -- Co-occurrence -- Urban governance -- City manager; Sustainable urban development -- Periodicals; Sustainable buildings -- Periodicals; Urban ecology (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 307.76
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2022.104387
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2210-6707

Abstract

Highlights: This paper analyses the co-occurrence of urban heat and COVID-19 pandemic. Impacts of COVID-19 on urban heat challenges include urban temperature anomalies, variations in air pollutant concentrations, unbalanced energy development, and thermal health risks. The occurrence of COVID-19 reshaped the method to investigate urban heat challenges. Learning from the COVID-19 is an inevitable course to build a more resilient urban system. Abstract: Cities, the main place of human settlements, are under various mega challenges such as climate change, population increase, economic growth, urbanization, and pandemic diseases, and such challenges are mostly interlinked. Urban heat, due to heatwaves and heat islands, is the combined effect of climate change and urbanization. The COVID-19 is found to be a critical intervention of urban heat. However, the interrelationship between COVID-19 and urban heat has not been fully understood, constraining urban planning and design actions for improving the resilience to the dual impacts of heat and the pandemic. To close this research gap, this paper conducted a review on the co-occurrence of urban heat and the COVID-19 pandemic for a better understanding of their synergies, conflicts or trade-offs. The research involves a systematic review of urban temperature anomalies, variations in air pollutant concentrations, unbalanced energy development, and thermal health risks during the pandemic lockdown. In addition, this paper further explored data sources and analytical methods adopted to screen and identify the interventions of COVID-19 to urban heat. Overall, this paper is of significance for understanding the impact of COVID-19 on urban heat and provides a reference for coping with urban heat and the pandemic simultaneously. The world is witnessing the co-existence of heat and the pandemic, even in the post-pandemic era. This study can enlighten city managers, planners, the public, and researchers to collaborate for constructing a robust and resilient urban system for dealing with more than one challenges.