Environmental Justice Dimension of Heatwaves in Temperate Cities: Reconceptualising Urban Heat Vulnerability through Investigating Behavioural Adaptation

Reconceptualising Urban Heat Vulnerability through Investigating Behavioural Adaptation

Abstract

This PhD reconceptualises urban heatwave vulnerability in temperate cities through an Environmental Justice lens by examining behavioural adaptation as an unevenly distributed socio-spatial capacity. While urban heat research has advanced in mapping where heat accumulates, it has paid less attention to why some residents are less able to cope with elevated temperatures under similar thermal conditions. Grounded in Critical Realist ontology and pragmatic–interpretivist epistemology, the research adopts a sequential mixed-methods design comprising a critical knowledge assessment and a nationwide survey across Dutch urban density gradients, with the survey informed by in-depth qualitative inquiry. The findings show that heatwave vulnerability is shaped not only by hazard intensity or exposure, but also by unequal adaptive opportunities, constrained agency, housing conditions, household composition, tenure, gender, and the level of urbanity. By foregrounding behavioural adaptation, the dissertation advances a bottom-up, people-centred, and justice-oriented understanding of heatwave vulnerability.