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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-3871</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Assessment of current and future heat in a large hospital complex based on continuous indoor measurements and climate simulations</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Epp</surname>
<given-names>Katharina</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sulzer</surname>
<given-names>Markus</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5588-2985</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Steinmann</surname>
<given-names>Daniel</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zeeman</surname>
<given-names>Matthias</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9186-2519</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Matzarakis</surname>
<given-names>Andreas</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3076-555X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Christen</surname>
<given-names>Andreas</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3864-1703</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Chair of Environmental Meteorology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environment and Natural  Resources, University of Freiburg, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>University Medical Center Freiburg, Breisacher Straße 153, D-79110 Freiburg, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Democritus University of Thrace, Greece</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>11</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2025</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2025</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>36</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2025 Katharina Epp et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-3871/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-3871/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-3871/egusphere-2025-3871.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-3871/egusphere-2025-3871.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>People with acute illnesses and pre-existing conditions are particularly vulnerable to heat, making hospitals an area of high concern during heatwaves. Further, extreme heat impacts critical medical infrastructure due to increased patient admissions and impacts on workforce. This study assesses indoor heat occurrence and intensity in the University Medical Centre Freiburg, Germany based on measurements and data-driven climate simulations. Measurements were taken from May to September 2023 using a distributed sensor network in 60 rooms in 11 buildings. Measured air temperatures and physiologically equivalent temperatures are evaluated in terms of location, frequency, and intensity, as well as in relation to outdoor conditions, allowing for identification of vulnerable hospital structures and functions. Slight heat stress was most frequent and observed in all rooms, with 49 rooms showing additional occurrence of moderate and 17 rooms strong heat stress during summer 2023. Three heatwaves were identified as periods with high levels of heat stress and limited night-time cooling. Spatial hotspots were found in rooms without windows or air conditioning, located on higher floors, and predominantly in buildings constructed in 1950&amp;ndash;1990. Measurements were combined with climate model data to project room-specific future indoor heat occurrence in all 60 rooms. All levels of heat stress are modelled to become more frequent and intense in rooms without air conditioning. Moderate heat stress or higher will increase on average by an additional 24 hours in 2020&amp;ndash;2049 relative to 1990&amp;ndash;2019. These findings call for immediate and widespread heat adaptation measures to ensure continued provision of critical medical infrastructure.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>H2020 European Research Council</funding-source>
<award-id>855005 “urbisphere”</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>European Regional Development Fund</funding-source>
<award-id>“Clim’Ability Design” (8.3)</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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