Climate Change and Human Health: Impacts on the Physiological Responses of Vulnerable Populations

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change represents one of the main challenges for the future generation of scientists, with the need for a multidisciplinary effort including life sciences and health researchers. Among several environmental factors, extreme temperature events have been suggested to severely impact health and have been found to be associated with increased hospitalization and mortality. In particular, heat waves have recently hit populations worldwide, and vulnerable populations have been identified as those at a higher risk of heat illnesses, including children, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases. Impaired thermoregulation, autonomic dysfunction and altered physiological responses might characterize some of these clinical populations, and understanding these factors might help to identify unsafe conditions and to develop mitigation and countermeasure strategies.

This Special Issue aims to invite researchers to submit novel manuscripts about (i) thermoregulatory mechanisms in vulnerable populations (including the youth, the elderly, and clinical populations), (ii) physiological and health responses during conditions of thermal stress, (iii) development of new scales and indexes to identify unsafe environmental conditions, and (iv) evaluation of mitigation strategies and countermeasures to environmental stress (including buildings and urban green actions) on health.

Dr. Alex Buoite Stella
Dr. Shawnda A. Morrison
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.