Research and analysis

Social impacts of heatwaves

Explores the health and social impacts of heat waves, the vulnerability of social groups and ways society could improve its response to extreme heat.

From:
Environment Agency
Published
1 August 1999

Documents

Social impacts of heatwaves

Ref: LIT 1089

PDF, 1.15 MB, 47 pages

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Social impacts of heatwaves

PDF, 754 KB, 2 pages

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Details

The report recommends the following areas for research in the UK:

  • explore the relationship between heat waves and social behaviour;
  • evaluate the knock-on effects of failures in infrastructure, in particular, the consequences of a power cut leading to failure in transport and water systems;
  • assess the interaction of extreme heat with other hazards such as air quality and in particular, water security for UK cities;
  • explore the social processes leading to isolation and lack of information amongst vulnerable groups;
  • examine possible strategies for social adaptation, in particular alternatives to private air conditioning such as greening of city space and the provision of public cooling centres;
  • explore and assess the effectiveness of early warning systems.
Published 1 August 1999