Human Health Vulnerability to Summer Heat Extremes in Romanian-Bulgarian Cross-Border Area

Abstract

Human health vulnerability (HHV) to different climate change-related phenomena, that is, summer heat extremes, is related to the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of the affected entities. The current research is an empirical regional assessment of the human health effects of summer heat extremes in the Romania-Bulgarian Danube floodplain Calafat-Vidin–Turnu Măgurele-Nikopol (CV-TMN) sector. The external biophysical and socioeconomic factors that shape the vulnerability are supported by the climate approach. The research relies on processing meteorological data from the most representative climate stations in the study area based on which some indicators—significant for measuring the impact on human health—were computed (e.g., number of extremely hot days, number of tropical days, number of tropical nights) and integrated into a composite summer heat extremes index (SHEI). To assess HHV to summer heat extremes, the vulnerability framework was completed by the internal socioeconomic factors revealed by the characteristics of the population living in urban and rural settlements in terms of demographic, health provisions, and quality of indoor living spaces. Finally, the authors computed the index of human health vulnerability to summer heat extremes (HHVI) as the Hull Score at the level of territorial local administrative units.