Extreme heat in Australia claims more lives than any other natural disaster combined. It is particularly dangerous for the elderly, people with cardiovascular disease, children, and pregnant women. Some socio-economic factors also aggravate the health risk. After conducting his PhD research in aged care facilities that could not always keep people safe from heat, Dr Federico Tartarini is determined to design accessible solutions to manage heat in a warming world.
“I want to make free and open-source tools and applications that everyday people can use, so that we don’t just survive heatwaves that are becoming longer, more frequent, and intense. My aim is to help people thrive in a hotter world,” says Dr Tartarini, a Sydney Horizon Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning.
Part of the issue with current heat management solutions, says Dr Tartarini, is that they mainly rely on temperature which is measured in the shade. Moreover, heat stress models are based on healthy adults rather than the people most affected by the heat.
He’s working to tackle this problem with the Heat and Health Research Centre and the Sydney Environment Institute by gathering evidence on how different environmental factors like temperature or humidity, and personal influences like activity, age, and clothing impact people’s ability to cope with the heat.
“Our work has been keenly adopted by a range of organisations, from elite sporting bodies through to local councils and the Queensland government. It has been instrumental to protect people in the community to reduce their heat health risk and players and staff on hot days without compromising on the quality of the game or service delivery. In major international sporting competitions, our work has led to fewer players suffering heat stress and fewer interruptions to matches.”
