Suitable temperature indicator for adverse health impacts in sub-tropical cities: a case study in Hong Kong from 2010-2019.

Heat-health warning systems and services are important preventive actions for extreme heat, however, global evidence differs on which temperature indicator is more informative for heat-health outcomes. We comprehensively assessed temperature predictors on their summer associations with adverse health impacts in a high-density subtropical city. Maximum, mean, and minimum temperatures were examined on their associations with non-cancer mortality and hospital admissions in Hong Kong during summer seasons 2010-2019 using Generalized Additive Models and Distributed Lag Non-linear Models.

Birth and postnatal outcomes among infants of immigrant parents of different admission categories and parents born in Canada: a population-based retrospective study.

Background: Most studies of disparities in birth and postnatal outcomes by parental birthplace combine all immigrants into a single group. We sought to evaluate heterogeneity among immigrants in Canada by comparing birth and postnatal outcomes across different immigration categories.

Methods: We conducted a population-based retrospective study using Statistics Canada data on live births and stillbirths (1993-2017) and infant deaths (1993-2018), linked to parental immigration data (1960-2017).

Work precarity, employment characteristics and health among Canada's long-term care and seniors' home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted several issues among health care workers in Canada's long-term care and seniors' (LTCS) homes, including labour shortages, staff retention difficulties, overcrowding, and precarious working conditions. There is currently a lack of information on the health, well-being and working conditions of health care workers in LTCS homes - many of them immigrants - and a limited understanding of the relationship between them. This paper examines differences between immigrant and non-immigrant workers' health outcomes and precarious working conditions during the pandemic.

Sex differences in COVID-19 deaths in the early months of the pandemic in Canada: An examination with an immigration lens.

Background: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an overrepresentation of males in COVID-19 deaths worldwide, with Canada reporting more female COVID-19 deaths. This paper examines the overrepresentation of female COVID-19 deaths in Canada, with an immigration lens.

Data And Methods: Data were extracted from the COVID-19 Sex-Disaggregated Data Tracker to compare the sex distribution of COVID-19 deaths in Canada with that of other countries.

The impacts of COVID-19 on immigrants and the healthy immigrant effect: Reflections from Canada.

Discussions about potential long-term health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant health and the healthy immigrant effect (HIE) remain unaddressed. Drawing on Canada as a case study, we summarize the primary and secondary impacts of COVID-19 on immigrants. We find that recent and female immigrants as well refugees have fared far worse than either their more established and male counterparts or the Canadian-born population.

Mental health and neurocognitive disorder-related hospitalization rates in immigrants and Canadian-born population: a linkage study.

Objectives: Mental health and neurocognitive conditions are important causes of hospitalization among immigrants, though patterns may vary by immigrant category, world region of origin, and time since arrival in Canada. This study uses linked administrative data to explore differences in mental health hospitalization rates between immigrants and individuals born in Canada.

Methods: Hospital records from the Discharge Abstract Database and the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System for 2011 to 2017 were linked to the 2016 Longitudinal Immigrant Database and to Statistics Canada's 2011 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort.

Urban heat island effect-related mortality under extreme heat and non-extreme heat scenarios: A 2010-2019 case study in Hong Kong.

The urban heat island (UHI) effect exacerbates the adverse impact of heat on human health. However, while the UHI effect is further intensified during extreme heat events, prior studies have rarely mapped the UHI effect during extreme heat events to assess its direct temperature impact on mortality. This study examined the UHI effect during extreme heat and non-extreme heat scenarios and compared their temperature-mortality associations in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2019.

Modeling spatiotemporal carbon emissions for two mega-urban regions in China using urban form and panel data analysis.

Spatiotemporal monitoring of urban CO emissions is crucial for developing strategies and actions to mitigate climate change. However, most spatiotemporal inventories do not adopt urban form data and have a coarse resolution of over 1 km, which limits their implications in intra-city planning. This study aims to model the spatiotemporal carbon emissions of the two largest mega-urban regions in China, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, using urban form data from the Local Climate Zone scheme and landscape metrics, nighttime light images, and a year-fixed effects model at a fine resolution from 2012 to 2016.

Hospitalization related to chronic hepatitis B and C in recent immigrants in Canada: An immigration administrative data-linked, population-based cohort study.

Background: Canadian immigrants from countries where the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are endemic may be at higher risk of liver-related disease than Canadian-born residents. This study compared HBV- and HCV-related hospitalizations in Canadian immigrants (arriving from 1980 to 2013) and long-term residents (Canadian-born population and pre-1980 immigrants) and aimed to describe the burden of disease in both groups.

Methods: Based on the 2004/2005-to-2013/2014 hospital Discharge Abstract Database linked to the 1980-to-2013 Longitudinal Immigration Database, this descriptive cross-sectional study examined the distribution of HBV- and HCV-related hospitalizations, lengths of stay, comorbidities, and sequelae incurred by immigrants and long-term residents in Canada.

Integrating weather observations and local-climate-zone-based landscape patterns for regional hourly air temperature mapping using machine learning.

Air temperature is a crucial variable of urban meteorology and is essential to many urban environments, urban climate and climate-change-related studies. However, due to the limited observational records of air temperature and the complex urban morphology and environment, it might not be easy to map the hourly air temperature with a fine resolution at the surface level within and around cities via conventional methods. Thus, this study employed machine learning (ML) algorithms and meteorological and landscape data to develop hourly air temperature mapping techniques and methods at the 1-km resolution over a multi-year warm seasons period.

A Multiscale Land Use Regression Approach for Estimating Intraurban Spatial Variability of PM Concentration by Integrating Multisource Datasets.

Poor air quality has been a major urban environmental issue in large high-density cities all over the world, and particularly in Asia, where the multiscale complex of pollution dispersal creates a high-level spatial variability of exposure level. Investigating such multiscale complexity and fine-scale spatial variability is challenging. In this study, we aim to tackle the challenge by focusing on PM (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.

Towards decarbonisation targets by changing setpoint temperature to avoid building overcooling and implementing district cooling in (sub)tropical high-density cities - A case study of Hong Kong.

Climate warming, rapid economic development, and urbanisation in (sub)tropical regions lead to increasing electricity demand for building air-conditioning that could jeopardise the efforts of decarbonisation required to meet the climate change mitigation goals. This study investigates two strategies to reduce building energy consumption due to air-conditioning: 1) the bottom-up adoption of an Adaptive Thermal Comfort (ATC)-based cooling setpoint temperature and 2) the top-down implementation of efficient District Cooling Systems (DCS). The subtropical high-density city of Hong Kong is chosen for case study since detailed data on the city's current and realistic future urban form and function are available.

All-cause acute care hospitalization rates of immigrants and the Canadian-born population: A linkage study.

Background: As Canadian immigration levels increase, knowledge concerning immigrant health becomes increasingly important for health system policy and planning. This study compares the rate of all-cause hospitalization among immigrants with that of their Canadian-born counterparts.

Data And Methods: Using records from the Discharge Abstract Database (2004/2005 to 2016/2017) and the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System (2006/2007 to 2017/2018) linked to the 2016 Longitudinal Immigration Database, this study compared the age-standardized hospitalization rates (ASHRs) among immigrants with those of the Canadian-born population; the latter were obtained from a linkage based on the 2011 National Household Survey.

Access to mental health consultations by immigrants and refugees in Canada.

Background: Few quantitative studies have used national-level data to examine access to mental health consultation (MHC) by immigrants in Canada, and even fewer studies investigate MHCs using the following variables: immigrant admission category, duration in Canada since landing and world source regions. This study examines MHCs by immigrants and refugees-compared with those of Canadian-born respondents-while controlling for self-reported mental health (SRMH) and immigrant characteristics, using a population-based survey linked to immigrant landing information. This study, which is based on a linked database, allows for much richer insight into immigrant populations than most previous studies.

Generalized Vertical Components of built-up areas from global Digital Elevation Models by multi-scale linear regression modelling.

The estimation of the vertical components of built-up areas from free Digital Elevation Model (DEM) global data filtered by multi-scale convolutional, morphological and textural transforms are generalized at the spatial resolution of 250 meters using linear least-squares regression techniques. Six test cases were selected: Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, and Toronto. Five global DEM and two DEM composites are evaluated in terms of 60 combinations of linear, morphological and textural filtering and different generalization techniques.

Thermal-irradiant performance of green infrastructure typologies: Field measurement study in a subtropical climate city.

Greenery infrastructure (GI) is an important design strategy for sustainable cities and communities' development, as it brings multiple benefits including mitigating urban heat island. Based on the implementation locations, three typical GI typologies, namely green roof, green wall, and ground tree, are widely adopted in urban communities. As previous studies focused on one single GI and mainly studied their thermal features, this study aims to fill the gap by investigating three GI typologies within one site; their thermal-irradiant performance was compared for four typical summer days in a subtropical city.

The mental health of immigrants and refugees: Canadian evidence from a nationally linked database.

Background: Few studies of the healthy immigrant effect (HIE) have examined the mental health outcomes of Canadian-born individuals on a national scale compared with immigrants by admission category. This study fills this gap by examining the self-reported mental health (SRMH) of immigrants by admission category and other immigration dimensions (e.g.

Right tree, right place (urban canyon): Tree species selection approach for optimum urban heat mitigation - development and evaluation.

The re-integration of trees into the urban landscape is a veritable strategy for urban climate mitigation and adaptation. However, dysfunctional trees in terms of urban heat mitigation are dominant in many sub-tropical cities' landscapes due to the lack of scientific basis of tree selection. Therefore, this study proposes and evaluates a methodological framework as an approach for "right tree, right place" for urban heat mitigation through parametric ENVI-met simulations that involve the combination of 54 generic tree forms and 10 characteristic urban morphology - Sky-View Factor (SVF).

Publisher Correction: The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Assessment of Local Climate Zone Classification Maps of Cities in China and Feasible Refinements.

Local climate zone (LCZ) maps that describe the urban surface structure and cover with consistency and comparability across cities are gaining applications in studies of urban heat waves, sustainable urbanization and urban energy balance. Following the standard World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) method, we generated LCZ maps for over 20 individual cities and 3 major economic regions in China. Based on the confusion matrices constructed by manual comparison between the predicted classes and ground truths, we highlight the following: (1) notable variation in overall accuracies (i.

The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

Thermal discomfort is one of the main triggers for occupants' interactions with components of the built environment such as adjustments of thermostats and/or opening windows and strongly related to the energy use in buildings. Understanding causes for thermal (dis-)comfort is crucial for design and operation of any type of building. The assessment of human thermal perception through rating scales, for example in post-occupancy studies, has been applied for several decades; however, long-existing assumptions related to these rating scales had been questioned by several researchers.

Designing Urban Green Spaces for Older Adults in Asian Cities.

Elderly populations in Asian countries are expected to increase rapidly in the next few decades. Older adults, particularly in high-density cities, spend a considerable amount of time in urban green spaces (UGSs). The World Health Organization noted that UGSs are key to improving the age-friendliness of neighborhoods.

The impact of extremely hot weather events on all-cause mortality in a highly urbanized and densely populated subtropical city: A 10-year time-series study (2006-2015).

Background: The impact of heatwaves on public health has led to an urgent need to describe extremely hot weather events (EHWEs) and evaluate their health impacts.

Methods: In Hong Kong, a very hot day (VHD) can be defined when the daily maximum temperature ≥ 33 °C, and a hot night (HN) can be identified if the daily minimum temperature ≥ 28 °C. Three lengths of time, nine combinations of VHD and HN, and four categories of occurrence intervals between two EHWEs were considered over 2006-2015.

Healthy immigrant effect by immigrant category in Canada.

Background: Medical screening plays a role in explaining the healthy immigrant effect (HIE) among immigrants newly landed in Canada. The 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) modernized immigration selection by exempting certain immigrant categories (e.g.

Dynamic response of pedestrian thermal comfort under outdoor transient conditions.

Outdoor thermal comfort studies have proved that urban design has a great influence on pedestrians' thermal comfort and that its assessment helps one to understand the quality and usage of the pedestrian environment. However, the majority of outdoor thermal comfort studies perceive pedestrian thermal comfort as "static". The dynamic multiple uses of urban spaces and the highly inhomogeneous urban morphology in high-density cities of the tropics are seldom considered, which leads to a lack of understanding about how pedestrians respond to the changes of the outdoor environment.