Indoor thermal comfort in a rural dwelling in southwest China

The association of heatwave with drowning mortality in five provinces of China

Drowning is a serious public health problem in the world. Several studies have found that ambient temperature is associated with drowning, but few have investigated the effect of heatwave on drowning. This study aimed to explore the associations between heatwave and drowning mortality, and further estimate the mortality burden of drowning attributed to heatwave in China. Drowning mortality data were collected in 71 prefectures in China during 2013-2018 from provincial vital register system. Meteorological data at the same period were collected from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was first to explore the association between heatwave and drowning mortality in each prefecture. Secondly, the prefecture-specific associations were pooled using meta-analysis. Finally, attributable fractions (AFs) of drowning deaths caused by heatwave were estimated. Compared to normal day, the mortality risk of drowning significantly increased during heatwave (RR = 1.20, 95%CI: 1.18-1.23). Higher risks were observed in males (RR = 1.23, 95%CI: 1.20-1.27) than females (RR = 1.18, 95%CI: 1.13-1.23), in children aged 5-14 years old (RR = 1.24, 95%CI: 1.15-1.33) than other age groups, in urban city (RR = 1.32, 95%CI: 1.28-1.36) than rural area (RR = 1.09, 95%CI: 1.07-1.12) and in Jilin province (RR = 2.85, 95%CI: 1.61-5.06) than other provinces. The AF of drowning deaths due to heatwave was 11.4 % (95%CI: 10.0 %-12.9 %) during heatwave and 1.0 % (95%CI: 0.9 %-1.1 %) during study period, respectively. Moreover, the AFs during study period were higher for male (1.2 %, 95%CI: 1.0 %-1.3 %), children 5-14 years (1.1 %, 95%CI: 0.7 %-1.6 %), urban city (1.6 %, 95%CI: 1.4 %-1.8 %) than their correspondents. These differences were also observed in AFs during heatwave. We found that heatwave may significantly increase the mortality risk of drowning mortality, and its mortality burden attributable to heatwave was noteworthy. Targeted intervention should be carried out to decrease drowning mortality during heatwave.

Humanistic health of the physical living environment: The equity of property inheritance in China

Equity in the inheritance culture of family property is an important component of humanistic health in modern living environments. The inheritance of property under Chinese traditional family culture is the material basis for the continuation of family and clan. This study demonstrates the equity component embedded in traditional family inheritance culture and further studies of the healthy human settlements environment. Based on the theory of "equal share for all sons" in ancient China and the "equity" and "justice" that are of modern significance, this paper analyzes the family division culture of individual traditional housing and the corresponding impact indices of family division equity. Taking Renhe Village, a typical local residential building of the middle and late Qing Dynasty as the research object, this study built a spatial syntax data model and 3D simulation technology for the simulation analysis of space and climate. The results show that Renhe Village meets the requirements of the equity evaluation system of housing property rights distribution in terms of the natural unit indicator (quantity, lighting, ventilation) and the overall spatial indicator (privacy, centrality, convenience). In other words, equity does not mean an absolute average share, but an equity culture formed after six evaluation indices under the subdivision of two indicators are balanced. Based on the above, an equity system model of housing property rights distribution was established, and the weight of the ancients' attention to the housing distribution standard was explored. It is further found that the ancients attached more importance to light among the natural unit indicators, and attached the most importance to centrality in the overall spatial indicators. These findings provide new ideas for understanding the equity of property inheritance under Chinese traditional family culture. They also provide quantifiable criteria for the distribution of modern rural housing and social security housing, and ultimately provide a reference for the humanistic public health of the modern living environment.

Warming and cooling effects of local climate zones on urban thermal environment

Understanding the thermal characteristics and contribution ranking of local climate zones (LCZs) is essential since they can help in maintaining environmental harmony. However, previous studies only considered independent effects and could not analyze the combined effects of LCZ on land surface temperature (LST). In this study, we propose a new method to establish an interaction model between LCZs. Five first-level grids with different scales from 270 to 990 m were established to calculate the area proportion of LCZ. The area proportion of LCZ was then applied in the stepwise regression model to quantitatively analyze its magnitude and direction of impact on the LST. The results suggest that the LCZ types of the study area with the highest and lowest average LST were LCZ2 (compact middle-rise building, 39.82°C) and LCZG (water body, 34.24°C), respectively. However, on most scales, the warming effect of LCZ2 was lower than that of LCZE (bare rock or paver), and the cooling effect of LCZG was lower than that of LCZD (low plants). The optimum results were obtained at a scale of 810 m. At this scale, the warming effect was in the order: LCZE (0.314) > LCZ2 (0.236) > LCZ3 (compact low-rise building, 0.135) > LCZ5 (open middle-rise, 0.084) > LCZ6 (open low-rise, 0.056); the cooling effect was in the order: LCZD (-0.272) > LCZA (dense trees, -0.104) > LCZG (-0.103). These findings can help to elucidate the unique warming and cooling effects of LCZ on the interaction condition and the construction of an urban human settlement.