TY - JOUR

T1 - Climatic and Economic Background Determine the Disparities in Urbanites’ Expressed Happiness during the Summer Heat

AU - Cheng, Yingyi

AU - Yu, Zhaowu

AU - Xu, Chi

AU - Manoli, Gabriele

AU - Ren, Xiaopeng

AU - Zhang, Jinguang

AU - Liu, Yawen

AU - Yin, Rui

AU - Zhao, Bing

AU - Vejre, Henrik

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 American Chemical Society

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Climate-change-induced extreme weather events increase heat-related mortality and health risks for urbanites, which may also affect urbanites’ expressed happiness (EH) and well-being. However, the links among EH, climate, and socioeconomic factors remain unclear. Here we collected ∼6 million geotagged tweets from 44 Chinese prefecture-level cities based on Sina Weibo and performed a quadratic regression model to explore the relationships between summer heat and EH. A three-stage analysis was developed to examine spatiotemporal heterogeneity and identify factors contributing to disparities in urbanites’ EH. Results show that all cities exhibited a similar hump-shaped relationship, with an overall optimal temperature (OT) of 22.8 °C. The estimated OT varied geographically, with 25.3, 23.8, and 20.0 °C from north to south. Moreover, a 1 standard deviation increase in heatwave intensity was associated with a 0.813 (95% CI: 0.177, 1.449) standard deviation decrease in EH. Notably, within the geographic scope of this study, it was observed that urbanites in northern China and economically underdeveloped cities faced significantly lower heat risks during the summer heat. This research provides insight for future studies and practical applications concerning extreme weather events, urbanites’ mental health, and sustainable urban development goal.

AB - Climate-change-induced extreme weather events increase heat-related mortality and health risks for urbanites, which may also affect urbanites’ expressed happiness (EH) and well-being. However, the links among EH, climate, and socioeconomic factors remain unclear. Here we collected ∼6 million geotagged tweets from 44 Chinese prefecture-level cities based on Sina Weibo and performed a quadratic regression model to explore the relationships between summer heat and EH. A three-stage analysis was developed to examine spatiotemporal heterogeneity and identify factors contributing to disparities in urbanites’ EH. Results show that all cities exhibited a similar hump-shaped relationship, with an overall optimal temperature (OT) of 22.8 °C. The estimated OT varied geographically, with 25.3, 23.8, and 20.0 °C from north to south. Moreover, a 1 standard deviation increase in heatwave intensity was associated with a 0.813 (95% CI: 0.177, 1.449) standard deviation decrease in EH. Notably, within the geographic scope of this study, it was observed that urbanites in northern China and economically underdeveloped cities faced significantly lower heat risks during the summer heat. This research provides insight for future studies and practical applications concerning extreme weather events, urbanites’ mental health, and sustainable urban development goal.

KW - background climate

KW - economic context

KW - mental health

KW - sentiment analysis

KW - social media

KW - thermal threshold

KW - well-being

U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.3c01765

DO - 10.1021/acs.est.3c01765

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37458710

AN - SCOPUS:85166388940

VL - 57

SP - 10901

EP - 11356

JO - Environmental Science & Technology

JF - Environmental Science & Technology

SN - 0013-936X

IS - 30

ER -