Hundreds of deaths per year

Experts: Austria needs a heat warning system

(Bild: grafxart - stock.adobe.com)

Climate change is bringing us more and more hot days - and this weekend is no exception. However, the high temperatures can be quite dangerous. Calls for a heat warning system for the Alpine republic are therefore getting louder and louder.

Not all heat is the same, as its appearance can differ significantly even in geographically small areas. If you take the 14th district of Vienna, for example, you can see that it contains regions that are very urban and characterized by relatively old buildings and at the same time includes areas that are somewhat elevated, almost directly in the Vienna Woods, explained Klimek, who heads the "HeatProtect" project at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) in Vienna.

The aim is to pinpoint, as precisely as possible and over time, where heat-related health problems are likely to occur. This is anything but trivial, as it remains to be seen how the overall heating could affect the region in detail - the number of tropical nights has more than doubled in Austria's major cities over the past 30 years - and how various future scenarios with even higher temperatures will affect the region. The same applies to how all this will affect an ageing population with many people suffering from several illnesses at the same time and ultimately the operation of hospitals, care homes and the number of emergency services deployed.

The question of whether certain types of illnesses occur more frequently during heatwaves that would not have occurred otherwise is not so easy to answer.

Peter Klimek

Bild: HANS PUNZ / APA / picturedesk.com

The CSH team is trying to reconcile all of this with partners from the Medical University of Vienna, the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety, Caritas Vienna, Johanniter Austria, Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖG) and the UBIMET weather service. "For this project, we can draw on a wealth of data from 57 million hospitalizations over 22 years, 50,000 ambulance trips, 10 million weather data points from high-resolution time series and survey data from paramedics, nursing staff and hospitals on dealing with heat, which we use to examine the connections between periods of heat and the burden on the healthcare system," said Klimek in a CSH press release.

(Bild: Christian Forcher)

Austria counts up to 500 heat-related deaths per year
In Austria, up to 500 heat-related deaths are reported on average each year, according to the latest presentation of the "National Heat Protection Plan", which has been revised after seven years. From a research perspective, the project, which runs until 2026, also aims to close "knowledge gaps". The complexity researcher explained, for example, how long it takes for excess mortality to increase after heatwaves and how certain diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, worsen as a result: "The question of whether certain types of diseases occur more frequently during heatwaves that would not have occurred otherwise is not so easy to answer." It is also clear that global warming can change the course of human disease: "But there is still a lot that is not understood."

From heat alarms to cooling centers
Ultimately, in addition to "heat alarms for certain care homes or hospitals", the aim is also to gather information on where measures need to be taken in the longer term. In other words, where heatwaves should be alleviated by greening areas or improving urban spatial planning, setting up "cooling centers" or declaring regional car-free days at short notice. Another important factor at "district level" is the building stock, which can sometimes remain massively overheated for weeks after the peak of heat episodes.