• Atmosphere
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.137-146
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• 2008

This study examines one thermal index, perceived temperature (PT), over the Korean Peninsula during 2007 summer. Heat/cold stress has been described using air temperature and humidity for warm seasons and air temperature and wind velocity in the cold conditions, while PT is based on a heat budget model of the human body that considers air temperature, humidity, wind velocity and radiation effect regardless of climates, regions and seasons. PT is higher about $4-5^{\circ}C$ than air temperature in the summer. Humidity increases PT, while wind tends to reduces PT possibly by evaporation of water vapor. The geographical distribution of summer PT indicates that the lowest PT happened in the east central region, with the appearance of the highest PT in the inland of southern region in Korea. Although the latitudinal trend shows that PT decreases northward, inland PT is higher than that of coastal region. Compared to the heat index or the discomfort index that considers air temperature and humidity, PT represents distinctive regional characteristics of thermal comfort. The distribution of PT shows that it may be a useful thermal index for the assessment of thermal comfort or stress region in the Korean Peninsula.

• Atmosphere
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.237-248
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• 2008

A thermal index which considers metabolic heat generation of human body is proposed for operational forecasting. The new thermal index, Perceived Temperature (PT), is forecasted using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model and validated. Forecasted PT shows the characteristics of diurnal variation and topographic and latitudinal effect. Statistical skill scores such as correlation, bias, and RMSE are employed for objective verification of PT and input meteorological variables which are used for calculating PT. Verification result indicates that the accuracy of air temperature and wind forecast is higher in the initial forecast time, while relative humidity is improved as the forecast time increases. The forecasted PT during 2007 summer is lower than PT calculated by observation data. The predicted PT has a minimum Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE) of $7-8^{\circ}C$ at 9-18 hour forecast. Spatial distribution of PT shows that it is overestimated in western region, while PT in middle-eastern region is underestimated due to strong wind and low temperature forecast. Underestimation of wind speed and overestimation of relative humidity have caused higher PT than observation in southern region. The predicted PT from the mesoscale model gives appropriate information as a thermal index forecast. This study suggests that forecasted PT is applicable to the prediction of health warning based on the relationship between PT and mortality.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.321-330
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• 2009

Spatiotemporal changes in the thermal environment in a large city, Seoul, Korea were analyzed using a thermal index, perceived temperature (PT), to standardize the weather conditions. PT is a standard index for the thermal balance of human beings in thermophysiological environment. For the analysis of PT, the data from long-term monitoring and intensive observations in and around the inner-city stream called 'Cheonggye' in Seoul, were compared with a reference data from the Seoul weather station. Long-term data were monitored by installing two automatic weather stations at 66m (S1) and 173m (S2) away from the center of the stream. Through the analysis of the data during the summer of 2006 and intensive observation periods, it was revealed that the stream's effects on the PT extended up to the distance of the S1 site. In winter, the increase of the PT between pre- and post-restoration was stronger at S1, which was nearer than S2 from the stream. These results suggest that PT can be used as an effective model in analyzing the changes of the thermal environment in relation with the changes of water surface areas.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.253-264
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• 2010

This study investigates the relationship between daily mortality and heat stress in Seoul, using perceived temperatures (PT) derived from a heat budget model. During the summer season, observed PT intensity showed the biggest magnitude of summer heat stress from the middle 10 days of July to the first 10 days of August. The elderly (65 and above) were found to be the most vulnerable to heat stress. The threshold PT, with a significant increase in excess mortality, was $38^{\circ}C$. No time lagged effect was observed with summer heat stress, while a high correlation was observed between anomalies in PT and relative deviation of mortality. A comparison of the heat index and the discomfort index with excess mortality revealed that the discomfort index underestimated excess mortality, whereas the heat index could not appropriately explain the increase in excess mortality correlated with the increase in excess heat. In contrast, PT was found to be the weather element that best represents excess mortality due to heat stress, and is thus expected to serve as a more reliable forecast index of human biometeorology.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.26
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• pp.9.1-9.9
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• 2011

Objectives: In order to evaluate which temperature index is the best predictor for the health impact assessment of heat stress in Korea, several indexes were compared. Methods: We adopted temperature, perceived temperature (PT), and apparent temperature (AT), as a heat stress index, and changes in the risk of death for Seoul and Daegu were estimated with $^1{\circ}C$ increases in those temperature indexes using generalized additive model (GAM) adjusted for the non-temperature related factors: time trends, seasonality, and air pollution. The estimated excess mortality and Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) due to the increased temperature indexes for the $75^{th}$ percentile in the summers from 2001 to 2008 were compared and analyzed to define the best predictor. Results: For Seoul, all-cause mortality presented the highest percent increase (2.99% [95% CI, 2.43 to 3.54%]) in maximum temperature while AIC showed the lowest value when the all-cause daily death counts were fitted with the maximum PT for the $75^{th}$ percentile of summer. For Daegu, all-cause mortality presented the greatest percent increase (3.52% [95% CI, 2.23 to 4.80%]) in minimum temperature and AIC showed the lowest value in maximum temperature. No lag effect was found in the association between temperature and mortality for Seoul, whereas for Daegu one-day lag effect was noted. Conclusions: There was no one temperature measure that was superior to the others in summer. To adopt an appropriate temperature index, regional meteorological characteristics and the disease status of population should be considered.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.514-524
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• 2016

The Bio-Climatic impact Assessment System, BioCAS was utilized to produce analysis maps of daily maximum perceived temperature ($PT_{max}$) and excess mortality ($r_{EM}$) over the entire Seoul area on a heat wave event. The spatial resolution was 25 m and the Aug. 5, 2012 was the selected heat event date. The analyzed results were evaluated by comparing with observed health impact data - mortality and morbidity - during heat waves in 2004-2013 and 2006-2011,respectively. They were aggregated for 25 districts in Seoul. Spatial resolution of the comparison was equalized to district to match the lower data resolution of mortality and morbidity. Spatial maximum, minimum, average, and total of $PT_{max}$ and $r_{EM}$ were generated and correlated to the health impact data of mortality and morbidity. Correlation results show that the spatial averages of $PT_{max}$ and $r_{EM}$ were not able to explain the observed health impact. Instead, spatial minimum and maximum of $PT_{max}$ were correlated with mortality (r=0.53) and morbidity (r=0.42),respectively. Spatial maximum of $PT_{max}$, determined by building density, affected increasing morbidity at daytime by heat-related diseases such as sunstroke, whereas spatial minimum, determined by vegetation, affected decreasing mortality at nighttime by reducing heat stress. On the other hand, spatial maximum of $r_{EM}$ was correlated with morbidity (r=0.52) but not with mortality. It may have been affected by the limit of district-level irregularity such as difference in base-line heat vulnerability due to the age structure of the population. Areal distribution of the heat impact by local building and vegetation, such as spatial maximum and minimum, was more important than spatial mean. Such high resolution analyses are able to produce quantitative results in health impact and can also be used for economic analyses of localized urban development.