An Assessment To Evaluate Potential Passive Cooling Patterns For Climate Change Adaptation In A Residential Neighbourhood Of A Mediterranean Coastal City (Athens, Greece)

This study investigates the potential for passive cooling patterns inside the urban fabric in the Mediterranean climate city of Athens (Greece), especially with regard to quantify air temperature reduction and thermal comfort amelioration at the neighbourhood scale. Using both field measurements and an urban microclimate simulation model, we assessed cooling and warming patterns in various sites of an Athens residential neighbourhood. Results show that, under Mediterranean climate conditions, urban design elements such as wooded courtyards and appropriately oriented urban design elements such as galleries have a considerable cooling effect and can be used as cool places inside the neighbourhood for occupants\u27 comfort amelioration and also as passive cooling tools for buildings to reduce summer energy consumption. They may then function as passive design strategies to adapt the urban site form to different climate change scenarios

An assessment to evaluate potential passive cooling patterns for climate change adaptation in a residential neighbourhood of a Mediterranean coastal city (Athens, Greece)

© 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. This study investigates the potential for passive cooling patterns inside the urban fabric in the Mediterranean climate city of Athens (Greece), especially with regard to quantify air temperature reduction and thermal comfort amelioration at the neighbourhood scale. Using both field measurements and an urban microclimate simulation model, we assessed cooling and warming patterns in various sites of an Athens residential neighbourhood. Results show that, under Mediterranean climate conditions, urban design elements such as wooded courtyards and appropriately oriented urban design elements such as galleries have a considerable cooling effect and can be used as cool places inside the neighbourhood for occupants\u27 comfort amelioration and also as passive cooling tools for buildings to reduce summer energy consumption. They may then function as passive design strategies to adapt the urban site form to different climate change scenarios

Evaluating the effects of different mitigation strategies on the warm thermal environment of an urban square in Athens, Greece

The present study examines the effect of different mitigation strategies on the microclimate and thermal sensation in an urban open area in Athens. The microclimatic model ENVI-met was applied to simulate thermal conditions for a warm summer day (15.07.2010). Thermal conditions were assessed based on air temperature and the Mediterranean thermal sensation scales of the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) and the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). The spatial and temporal resolution of PET throughout the square was developed per design scenario and was compared to the Current design layout to analyse and quantify the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies on the amelioration of thermal conditions. Results showed that the combination of the design scenarios was found to be the most advantageous mitigation strategy. The average PET and UTCI reduction of 6.9 °C and 6.1 °C, respectively, achieved a 15.5% improvement in thermal comfort. The aim of this research was to set specific targets on thermal sensation improvement and, based on the obtained results, it suggests certain mitigation strategies that will allow the specification of the appropriate microclimatic interventions to improve thermal comfort to the desired extent in the context of developing urban design guidelines

The Precarity of Progress: Implications of a Shifting Gendered Division of Labor for Relationships and Well-Being as a Function of Country-Level Gender Equality

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a shift toward a more traditional division of labor–one where women took greater responsibility for household tasks and childcare than men. We tested whether this regressive shift was more acutely perceived and experienced by women in countries with greater gender equality. Cross-cultural longitudinal survey data for women and men (N = 10,238) was collected weekly during the first few months of the pandemic. Multilevel modelling analyses, based on seven waves of data collection, indicated that a regressive shift was broadly perceived but not uniformly felt. Women and men alike perceived a shift toward a more traditional division of household labor during the first few weeks of the pandemic. However, this perception only undermined women’s satisfaction with their personal relationships and subjective mental health if they lived in countries with higher levels of economic gender equality. Among women in countries with lower levels of economic gender equality, the perceived shift predicted higher relationship satisfaction and mental health. There were no such effects among men. Taken together, our results suggest that subjective perceptions of disempowerment, and the gender role norms that underpin them, should be considered when examining the gendered impact of global crisis

Pandemic Boredom: Little Evidence That Lockdown-Related Boredom Affects Risky Public Health Behaviors Across 116 Countries

Some public officials have expressed concern that policies mandating collective public health behaviors (e.g., national/regional "lockdown ") may result in behavioral fatigue that ultimately renders such policies ineffective. Boredom, specifically, has been singled out as one potential risk factor for noncompliance. We examined whether there was empirical evidence to support this concern during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large cross-national sample of 63,336 community respondents from 116 countries. Although boredom was higher in countries with more COVID-19 cases and in countries that instituted more stringent lockdowns, such boredom did not predict longitudinal within-person decreases in social distancing behavior (or vice versa; n = 8,031) in early spring and summer of 2020. Overall, we found little evidence that changes in boredom predict individual public health behaviors (handwashing, staying home, self-quarantining, and avoiding crowds) over time, or that such behaviors had any reliable longitudinal effects on boredom itself. In summary, contrary to concerns, we found little evidence that boredom posed a public health risk during lockdown and quarantine

Trust in government regarding COVID-19 and its associations with preventive health behaviour and prosocial behaviour during the pandemic: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Background The effective implementation of government policies and measures for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic requires compliance from the public. This study aimed to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of trust in government regarding COVID-19 control with the adoption of recommended health behaviours and prosocial behaviours, and potential determinants of trust in government during the pandemic. Methods This study analysed data from the PsyCorona Survey, an international project on COVID-19 that included 23 733 participants from 23 countries (representative in age and gender distributions by country) at baseline survey and 7785 participants who also completed follow-up surveys. Specification curve analysis was used to examine concurrent associations between trust in government and self-reported behaviours. We further used structural equation model to explore potential determinants of trust in government. Multilevel linear regressions were used to examine associations between baseline trust and longitudinal behavioural changes. Results Higher trust in government regarding COVID-19 control was significantly associated with higher adoption of health behaviours (handwashing, avoiding crowded space, self-quarantine) and prosocial behaviours in specification curve analyses (median standardised beta = 0.173 and 0.229, p < 0.001). Government perceived as well organised, disseminating clear messages and knowledge on COVID-19, and perceived fairness were positively associated with trust in government (standardised beta = 0.358, 0.230, 0.056, and 0.249, p < 0.01). Higher trust at baseline survey was significantly associated with lower rate of decline in health behaviours over time (p for interaction = 0.001). Conclusions These results highlighted the importance of trust in government in the control of COVID-19

Conceptual replication and extension of health behavior theories' predictions in the context of COVID-19: Evidence across countries and over time

Virus mitigation behavior has been and still is a powerful means to fight the COVID-19 pandemic irrespective of the availability of pharmaceutical means (e.g., vaccines). We drew on health behavior theories to predict health-protective (coping-specific) responses and hope (coping non-specific response) from health-related cognitions (vulnerability, severity, self-assessed knowledge, efficacy). In an extension of this model, we proposed orientation to internal (problem-focused coping) and external (country capability) coping resources as antecedents of health protection and hope; health-related cognitions were assumed as mediators of this link. We tested these predictions in a large multi-national multi-wave study with a cross-sectional panel at T1 (Baseline, March-April 2020; N = 57,631 in 113 countries) and a panel subsample at two later time points, T2 (November 2020; N = 3097) and T3 (April 2021; N = 2628). Multilevel models showed that health-related cognitions predicted health-protective responses and hope. Problem-focused coping was mainly linked to health-protective behaviors (T1-T3), whereas country capability was mainly linked to hope (T1-T3). These relationships were partially mediated by health-related cognitions. We conceptually replicated predictions of health behavior theories within a real health threat, further suggesting how different coping resources are associated with qualitatively distinct outcomes. Both patterns were consistent across countries and time

Lives versus Livelihoods? Perceived economic risk has a stronger association with support for COVID-19 preventive measures than perceived health risk

This paper examines whether compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures is motivated by wanting to save lives or save the economy (or both), and which implications this carries to fight the pandemic. National representative samples were collected from 24 countries (N = 25,435). The main predictors were (1) perceived risk to contract coronavirus, (2) perceived risk to suffer economic losses due to coronavirus, and (3) their interaction effect. Individual and country-level variables were added as covariates in multilevel regression models. We examined compliance with various preventive health behaviors and support for strict containment policies. Results show that perceived economic risk consistently predicted mitigation behavior and policy support—and its effects were positive. Perceived health risk had mixed effects. Only two significant interactions between health and economic risk were identified—both positive