A Study On The Urban Residents’ Perception Of And Adaptation To The Impact Of Heatwaves

Climate change is mostly characterized by global warming.Influenced by the global warming and urban heat land effect,the heatwaves has become one of the influential meteorological disasters in the world,and it has severely threatened the ecosystem,social and economic development,and human survival.As the important content of the research on global change adaptation,the study of public response of and adaptation to heatwaves has aroused extensive attention of scholars both domestic and abroad.China has become one of the countries with serious heatwaves disasters in the world,however,domestic studies in this field were comparatively weak and still in the preliminary stage of exploration.In this context,this article taking the urban residents’perception and adaptation to the impact of heatwaves as the point of contact.Based on the 585 questionnaire surveys concerning the perception of urban residents to heatwaves in Fuzhou in 2013,some characteristics of residents’ perception to the impact of heatwaves,influence factors and their adaptation are explored,by using the methods of descriptive analysis and multinomial logistic regression.The results show that:(1)Over the past 59 years,the frequency,intensity and duration of heatwaves presented a fluctuated improving trend in Fuzhou,and it’s changes were greatest from the late 1990s up to now;(2)In general,most of the Fuzhou urban residents are able to accurately perceived the local warming trend,and they have a higher level of perception to the impact of heatwaves;(3)Fuzhou urban residents’perception to the impact of heatwaves are significantly affected by health conditions,whether attend health insurance,number of air-conditioning,heatwaves experience and length of residency;(4)Fuzhou urban residents can spontaneously adopt a variety of adaptive behaviors,which include drinking enough water,dietary adjustment,installing air conditioning,wearing cool clothes and using shading devices etc.and the factors of income and convenience determine which adaptive measures they choose.The main channels Fuzhou urban residents accessed heatwaves information is TV,networks,newspapers and self-perception.Finally,this article puts forward some policy suggestions,based on the above research results and existing problems and deficiencies of current adaptive strategies of heatwaves.Through the typical case study,we hope to deepen the scientific understanding of the urban residents’ perception of and adaptation to the impact of heatwaves,and provides scientific basis for rational adaptation strategies.