The maturing interdisciplinary relationship between human biometeorological aspects and local adaptation processes: an encompassing overview

Abstract

To date, top-down approaches have played a fundamental role in expanding the comprehension of both existing, and future, climatological patterns. In liaison, the focus attributed to climatic mitigation has shifted towards the identification of how climatic adaptation can specifically prepare for an era prone to further climatological aggravations. Within this review study, the progress and growing opportunities for the interdisciplinary integration of human biometeorological aspects within existing and future local adaptation efforts are assessed. This encompassing assessment of the existing literature likewise scrutinises existing scientific hurdles in approaching existing/future human thermal wellbeing in local urban contexts. The respective hurdles are subsequently framed into new research opportunities concerning human biometeorology and its increasing interdisciplinary significance in multifaceted urban thermal adaptation processes. It is here where the assembly and solidification of ‘scientific bridges’ are acknowledged within the multifaceted ambition to ensuring a responsive, safe and thermally comfortable urban environment. Amongst other aspects, this review study deliberates upon numerous scientific interferences that must be strengthened, inclusively between the: (i) climatic assessments of both top-down and bottom-up approaches to local human thermal wellbeing; (ii) rooted associations between qualitative and quantitative aspects of thermal comfort in both outdoor and indoor environments; and (iii) efficiency and easy-to-understand communication with non-climatic experts that play an equally fundamental role in consolidating effective adaptation responses in an era of climate change.