This study aims to identify the relationship between changes in temperature regarding urbanization processes and seasonality in the city of São Paulo, located in the Tropic of Capricorn. The land surface temperature (LST) results were compared to official weather stations measurements, identifying in the spring–summer period 65.5% to 86.2% accuracy, while in the autumn–winter period, the results ranged from 58.6% to 93.1% accuracy, when considering the standard deviation and the temperature probe error. The mean MAE and mean RMSE range from 1.2 to 1.9 °C, with 83.0% of the values being ≤2.7 °C, and the coefficient of determination values are R = 0.81 in spring–summer and R = 0.82 in autumn–winter. Great thermal amplitude was estimated in the spring–summer season, with a difference in LST of the built-up space and rural area ranging from 5.8 and 11.5 °C, while in the autumn–winter season, the LST is more distributed through the city, with differences ranging from 4.4 to 8.5 °C. In addition, the current study suggests remote sensing as a reliable, cheap, and practical methodology to assist climate in order to support public policies and decision-making actions regarding environmental and urban planning.

This research concerns a first approach to adapt the thermal comfort bands of the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), New Standard Effective Temperature (SET), and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) indices to Santa Maria’s population, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on the basis of the application of perception/sensation questionnaires to inhabitants while, at the same time, recording meteorological attribute data. Meteorological and thermal sensation data were collected from an automatic weather station installed on paved ground in the downtown area, which contained the following sensors: a scale gauge; a global radiation sensor; a temperature and humidity sensor; a speed and wind direction sensor; a gray globe thermometer. First of all, air temperature, gray globe temperature, relative air humidity, wind speed, wind gust, global solar radiation and precipitation were collected. People were interviewed using a questionnaire adapted from the model established by ISO 10551. The results demonstrated the efficiency of the linear regression model and the adequacy of the interpretive indexes, presenting results different from those analyzed by other authors in different climatic zones. These differences meet the analyzed literature and attest to the effectiveness of the calibration method of the PET, SET, and PMV indices for the Brazilian subtropical climate. After calibration, the PET index hit rate increased from 32.8% to 69.3%. The SET index, which had an initial hit rate of 34.6% before calibration, reached a hit-rate of 64.9%, while the PMV index increased from 35.9% to 58.7%.

Burns are common practices in Brazil and cause major fires, especially in the Legal Amazon. This study evaluated the dynamics of the fire foci in the Legal Amazon in Brazil and their consequences on environmental degradation, particularly in the transformation of the forest into pasture, in livestock and agriculture areas, mining activities and urbanization. The fire foci data were obtained from the reference satellites of the BDQueimadas of the CPTEC/INPE for the period June 1998–May 2022. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive and exploratory statistical analysis, followed by a comparison with the PRODES data during 2004–2021, the DETER data (2016–2019) and the ENSO phases during the ONI index for the study area. Biophysical parameters were used in the assessment of environmental degradation. The results showed that El Niño’s years of activity and the years of extreme droughts (2005, 2010 and 2015) stand out with respect to significant increase in fire foci. Moreover, the significant numbers of fire foci indices during August, September, October and November were recorded as 23.28%, 30.91%, 15.64% and 10.34%, respectively, and these were even more intensified by the El Niño episodes. Biophysical parameters maps showed the variability of the fire foci, mainly in the south and west part of the Amazon basin referring to the Arc of Deforestation. Similarly, the states of Mato Grosso, Pará and Amazonas had the highest alerts from PRODES and DETER, and in the case of DETER, primarily mining and deforestation (94.3%) increased the environmental degradation. The use of burns for agriculture and livestock, followed by mining and wood extraction, caused the degradation of the Amazon biome.

The exponential growth of urban populations and city infrastructure globally presents distinct patterns, impacting climate change forecasts and urban climates. This study conducts a systematic review of the literature focusing on human thermal comfort (HTC) in outdoor urban environments. The findings indicate a significant surge in studies exploring HTC in open urban spaces in recent decades. While historically centered on Northern Hemisphere cities, there is a recent shift, with discussions extending to various metropolitan contexts in the Southern Hemisphere. Commonly employed urban categorization systems include Sky View Factor (SVF), Height × Width (H/W) ratio, and the emerging Local Climate Zones (LCZs), facilitating the characterization of urban areas and their usage. Various thermal indices, like Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), and Standard Effective Temperature (SET), are frequently utilized in evaluating external HTC in metropolitan areas. These indices have undergone validation in the literature, establishing their reliability and applicability.

This research concerns the identification of a pattern between the occurrence of extreme weather conditions, such as cold waves and heat waves, and hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), in the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM) in southern Brazil between 2012 and 2017. The research employed the field experiment method to measure the biometeorological parameters associated with hospital admissions in different seasons, such as during extreme weather conditions such as a cold wave (CW) or a heat wave (HW), using five thermal comfort indices: physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), new standard effective temperature (SET), predicted mean vote (PMV), effective temperatures (ET), and effective temperature with wind (ETW). The hospitalizations were recorded as 0.775 and 0.726 admissions per day for the winter and entire study periods, respectively. The records for extreme events showed higher admission rates than those on average days. The results also suggest that emergency hospitalizations for heart diseases during extreme weather events occurred predominantly on days with thermal discomfort. Furthermore, there was a particularly high risk of hospitalization for up to seven days after the end of the CW. Further analyses showed that cardiovascular hospitalizations were higher in winter than in summer, suggesting that CWs are more life threatening in wintertime.