Urban heat stress, air quality and climate change adaptation strategies in UK cities

Chauhan, S, Walsh, C, Eckersley, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9048-8529, Mohareb, E and Heidrich, O, 2025. Urban heat stress, air quality and climate change adaptation strategies in UK cities. Frontiers of Engineering Management. ISSN 2095-7513

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Abstract

Consistently threatened by climate change, cities need to adapt to emerging hazards and risks. One such risk relates to extreme heat, which is a particular problem in urban areas and is also linked to air pollution. Together, these risks can have a substantial impact on human health. Our analysis of air quality, ambient temperatures, and climate change adaptation plans in 30 UK cities found strong evidence that London and Cambridge exhibit the highest risk of both extreme temperature and air pollution. Furthermore, although a heatwave in London led to lower levels of PM10 and NO2, it was highly correlated with increased levels of O3, a low-level pollutant that exacerbates respiratory problems. We also found a lack of data availability (e.g. O3, PM10) in some local authorities and inconsistencies in their climate change adaptation strategies. We therefore identify a clear need for standardised assessment of hazards at the city level, and their incorporation into local adaptation plans. Further assessment of climate hazards and risks at the city level are required for effectively adapting to a changing climate in UK and other cities worldwide.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Frontiers of Engineering Management
Creators:	Chauhan, S., Walsh, C., Eckersley, P., Mohareb, E. and Heidrich, O.
Publisher:	Springer
Date:	27 March 2025
ISSN:	2095-7513
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s42524-025-4029-y DOI 2316571 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	09 Dec 2024 12:19
Last Modified:	31 Mar 2025 08:03
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52707

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