Applications of the Universal Thermal Climate Index UTCI in Biometeorology

Eduardo Krüger holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the Catholic University of Petrópolis (1989), Brazil, a Master's Degree in Energy Planning from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1993) and a Ph.D. in Architecture from Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany (1998). Post-doctorate and sabbatical periods took place at Gurion University of the Negev, Israel (during 2005/2006) at Glasgow Caledonian University, UK (2010/2011) and at the Karslruher Institut für Technologie, KIT, Germany (2015/2016). Eduardo is currently an Associate Professor at the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR), lecturing both in the departments of Civil Construction and Architecture and Urbanism and conducting research at the Post-Graduate Program in Civil Engineering, UTFPR. Eduardo is an ad hoc consultant for several Funding Agencies in Brazil and a frequent reviewer for relevant journals from Elsevier such as Applied Energy, Building & Environment, Energy & Buildings, International Journal of Biometeorology, Science of the Total Environment, among others. He has published over 200 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings. Research interests comprise indoor and outdoor thermal and luminous comfort, urban climatology, human biometeorology, climate-responsive building and urban design.

• Introduction.- Issues in UTCI Calculation from a Decade’s Experience.- Literature Review on UTCI Applications.- Sensitivity of UTCI thermal comfort prediction to personal and situational factors – residual analysis of pedestrian survey data.- Long and short-term acclimatization effects on outdoor thermal perception versus UTCI.- Regional adaptation of the UTCI: Comparisons between different datasets in Brazil.- Outdoor thermal environment and heat-related symptoms of pedestrians: An application of the UTCI for health risk assessment.- Mapping UTCI (in different scales).- Application of the UTCI in high-resolution urban climate modeling techniques.- The universal thermal climate index as an operational forecasting tool of human biometeorological conditions in Europe.- Proposed framework for establishing a global database for outdoor thermal comfort research.- Afterword.