With Joshua Jonah and Tianyang Du, University of Nottingham.
All seminars online. Please contact sue.davis@nottingham.ac.uk for the link. Subject to change.
Part of the Geosciences Seminar Series.
Joshua, Jonah Kunda
Impacts of Urban Heat Island on Human Health in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and Environs
United Nations estimates indicate that over 55.3% of the human population resides in cities, with urban centers projected to house over 60% of the world population by 2030. A critical feature of the urban regions is the urban heat island (UHI). UHI impacts negatively on people and is likely to worsen with climate change. This study aims to investigate links between UHI and the health of population vulnerability in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city.
A set of heat vulnerability indicators has been developed to map the human exposure to UHI, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to heat impacts. Key results from the study show that warmer micro-climates with limited vegetative cooling and elevated LSTs were identified within the settlements characterized by high social sensitivity (eg low-income and literate populations). The adaptive capacity measure to the effects of UHI is evidenced in areas with a reduced local heat connected to urban greening and the use of air conditioning. Heat vulnerability to UHI is expected to be prevalent in low-income countries with implications on human health, emphasizing the need to build on the international treaty on climate change regarding global temperature to protect vulnerable populations.
Tianyang Du
An assessment of thermal pollution in rivers due to cooling water from power plants using a newly developed thermal pollution index
Thermal pollution can be attributed to various direct and indirect factors, with a key direct source being cooling water from thermal power plants which utilise heat energy to generate electric power. Thermal power plants are a particularly significant source of thermal pollution because the warmer effluent discharged from their cooling systems can cause abrupt changes in water temperature, imposing substantial thermal stress on aquatic organisms.
In addition, the impact of thermal pollution on water temperature could be further exacerbated due to climate change and the ongoing reduction in riparian shading associated with land use change. In light of continued projected rises in water temperature due to climate change and power-plant expansion, it is of vital importance to understand the current status of thermal pollution in rivers and the likely impacts of the decommissioning and construction of power plants.
In this presentation, I will 1) explain what thermal pollution is and why thermal pollution from power plants is particularly important, 2) highlight the distribution pattern of thermal power plants in the catchment regionally and globally, 3) provide an introduction of how thermal pollution index (TPI) as an assessment tool for thermal pollution is developed and applied, and 4) demonstrate current and future work.