Development of Heatwave Crisis Alert Standard for Administrative Districts Using Heatwave Risk Index

Abstract

The current heatwave crisis alert system considers the daily maximum temperature alone; therefore, the present study proposed a new method for estimating the daily heatwave crisis alert level. Specifically, the heatwave risk index was calculated by combining regional vulnerability, as estimated using principal component analysis, and normalized daily maximum temperature. The crisis alert level was classified according to the risk index value using the natural breaks method. The correlation coefficient between the heatwave risk index and heat-related morbidity rate was approximately 0.4. In addition, analysis of variance confirmed significant differences in the heat-related morbidity rate among different crisis alert levels. The current method is limited in that it does not take into account the various regional environmental characteristics, which may results in an ambiguous alert standard; however, this shortcoming may be resolved using the proposed heatwave risk index. Therefore, the results of the present study may be valuable for risk assessment and management in Korea.