Research

Page content: Reducing harm to older persons from extreme heat | Temperature thresholds for Melbourne and rural Victoria | Urban hot spots project

Research continues to be an important part of understanding heatwaves and their impact on the community. The department has funded research into:

• reducing harm to older persons from extreme heat
• temperature thresholds for Melbourne and rural Victoria
• urban hot spots.

Reducing harm to older persons from extreme heat

The project undertook a survey of health professionals and carers of the elderly, to determine their level of knowledge regarding the risks to the elderly from extreme weather events, and their ideas about useful adaptation strategies to minimise health impacts in this group.

Reducing harm to older persons in Victoria from extreme hot weather (389kb, pdf)

Comprehensive review of the scientific literature including a summary of key findings (519kb, pdf)

Temperature thresholds for Melbourne and rural Victoria

In research commissioned by the department, Monash University investigated heat health temperature thresholds for metropolitan Melbourne and regional centres across the state.

A heat health threshold is the temperature above which illness and death increases above a baseline level. The thresholds vary depending on geographic location, demographic profile of the community and other vulnerability factors.

This research has been published as:
Nicholls, N., Skinner, C., Loughnan, M. and Tapper, N. (2008). A simple heat alert system for Melbourne, Australia. International Journal of Biometeorology 52: 375-384

Following on from this work, the department commissioned Monash University to examine whether similar thresholds exist for the rest of Victoria.

The report below provides information about the adverse health effects of high temperatures in small regional towns in Victoria, and the results of the threshold temperature analysis.

Temperature thresholds for Melbourne and rural Victoria (893kb, pdf)

Urban hot spots project

This research aimed to explore information that defined population vulnerability based on a number of health, demographic and environmental factors known to influence population health during periods of extreme heat. The research also aimed to produce a map of factors that can increase the risk of heat-related illness across metropolitan Melbourne.

Hot Spots Project: A spatial vulnerability analysis of urban populations to extreme heat events (1.4MB, pdf)

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