Climate, Thermal Comfort and Tourism

Abstract

Methods of human-biometeorology can be applied for the assessment of atmospheric impacts on human beings. The thermal effective complex is the most important factor for tourism among the human-biometeorological effective complexes. A procedure for the physiologically significant assessment of the thermal environment is presented. It is based on thermal indices, which are derived from the human energy balance. It is important to know the mean climatic conditions of the area of vacations and recreation for tourism climatology. As an exemplary result a bioclimate map of Greece for the summer month of August is presented which shows the pronounced spatial distribution of mean monthly values of the thermal index Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET). Additionally, extreme conditions i.e. heat waves and its possible implications to human health were analyzed.