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This brief background highlights Brazil as a 'climate-health hotspot', i.e. a country where climate affects local populations negatively through multiple pathways (Di Napoli et al. BMC Public Health 22(1):1-8, 2022). Knowledge gaps still need to be filled concerning the various climaterelated dimensions of tourism, vector-borne diseases, mortality and morbidity in urban centers in the country (Krüger et al. Int J Biometeorol 66(7):1297-1315, 2022). Motivated by this, the first Brazilian Symposium on Human Biometeorology (Simpósio Brasileiro de Biometeorologia Humana 2022) was organized and held at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Natal, northeastern Brazil, between July 4 and 8, 2022. The symposium was organized as a hybrid event by a committee composed of researchers acting in different regions of the country, and who had an ongoing research collaboration on matters related to human biometeorology. The event was partly sponsored by the ISB and partly self-supported by the organizers and institutions involved. The symposium aimed to promote the development of the research area on human biometeorology in Brazil in facing challenges imposed by a globally and locally changing climate. To achieve this, the symposium focused on five main topics of discussion: a) climate-driven diseases; b) thermal comfort, urban and architectural biometeorology; c) atmospheric pollution and health; d) climate change; e) climate, health and climate change. This summary highlights the main findings, future research directions, and policy implications in each topic from the presentations and panel discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review aims to give an overview of the diversity of research areas related to human biometeorology in Brazil. The main focus of this paper addresses research trends, represented by published papers with national and international authorship, main contributions and shortcomings, as well as challenges and prospects of research in this area of study. An extensive literature search was conducted in the Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases so as to identify relevant publication output up to July 2021 related to the research area. The screening resulted in 96 studies chosen for full-text reading. Overall, results indicated a reduced amount of articles on the subject matter published internationally, with noticeable gaps in research in some regions of the country, such as the Amazon region and in the Brazilian Midwest region. Research gaps in relevant areas have been identified with limited output in the climate dimensions of tourism, vector-borne diseases, mortality and morbidity in urban centers. Such gaps should further encourage researchers to engage in research focused on those areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both global climate change and urbanization trends will demand adaptation measures in cities. Large agglomerations and impacts on landscape and natural environments due to city growth will require guided densification schemes in urban areas, particularly in developing countries. Human biometeorological indices such as the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) could guide this process, as they provide a clear account of expected effects on thermal sensation from a given change in outdoor settings. However, an earlier step should optimally include an adequacy test of suggested comfort and thermal stress ranges with calibration procedures based on surveys with the target population. This paper compares obtained thermal comfort ranges for three different locations in Brazil: Belo Horizonte, 20° S, Aw climate type; Curitiba, 25.5° S, Cfb subtropical climate, both locations in elevation (above 900 m a.s.l.); and Pelotas, at sea level, latitude 32° S, with a Cfa climate type. In each city, a set of outdoor comfort field campaigns has been carried out according to similar procedures, covering a wide range of climatic conditions over different seasons of the year. Obtained results indicate a variation of neutral temperatures up to 3 °C (UTCI units) as a possible latitude and local climate effect between the southern locations relative to the northernmost location. Low UTCI values were found in the two subtropical locations for the lower threshold of the thermal comfort band as compared with the original threshold. A possible explanation for that is a longer exposure to cold conditions as buildings are seldom provided with heating systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]