Regional Simulation Model of the Meteorological Effects of Maharlu Lake on the Human Climate Health of Shiraz in Iran

Abstract

Background and purpose: Human health is affected by a variety of human and natural phenomena that surround the environment. Atmospheric pollutants and thermal comfort conditions concern the quality of surrounding air. Given the influential role of lakes on the climatic conditions of their surrounding environment, the effect of different scenarios of Maharlu Lake in the southeastern part of Shiraz on the changes of thermal comfort conditions was modeled. Materials and Methods:  In this study, cooling power index and temperature humidity index were used to explore climate comfort conditions according to the long-term observational data from 1960 to 2010. Results: It was found that temperature humidity index has a declining trend in most months of the year. Maximum decreasing changes were observed in November and May with means of −0.31 and −0.29, respectively. However, the maximum of decade and significant changes of cooling power index belonged to April and November with means of 1.36 and 1.22, respectively. Conclusion:  Low relative humidity was seen in all the seasons; maximum decrease was observed during summer and in August with 11% decrease. Also, the dried lake outputs showed that the temperature during hot seasons increased, and the temperature during cold seasons decreased.

Keywords

• Environmental Health
• Thermal Comfort Modeling
• Mesoclimate Models
• Maharlu Lake