Urban overheating and health vulnerability: contribution of thermophysiological modeling compar[...]

European Commission; France; Sur place; EUR 40 000 - 60 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Une opportunité de doctorat en ingénierie thermique est proposée au sein du projet VF++. Le doctorant se concentrera sur la modélisation des effets du stress thermique sur la santé, intégrant des variabilités individuelles. Cette recherche contribuera à développer des stratégies d'adaptation pour les populations vulnérables face à des vagues de chaleur. Les candidats doivent avoir un master dans un domaine pertinent et un fort intérêt pour la recherche interdisciplinaire.

Qualifications

• Master requis en sciences thermiques ou thermo-physiologiques.
• Intérêt pour le travail collaboratif et interdisciplinaire sur le projet VF++.
• Compétences en modélisation numérique et en traitement de données.

Responsabilités

• Étudier les facteurs de vulnérabilité physiologique liés au stress thermique.
• Modéliser les facteurs physiologiques dans des modèles thermophysiologiques.
• Participer à la définition d'indicateurs de risque pour la santé.

Connaissances

Modélisation numérique

Data processing

Literature review

Travail collaboratif

Formation

Master en sciences thermiques ou thermo-physiologiques

Description du poste

Organisation/Company INSA Lyon Department CETHIL Research Field Engineering » Thermal engineering Engineering » Biomedical engineering Medical sciences » Health sciences Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Country France Application Deadline 13 Aug 2025 - 00:00 (Europe/Paris) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Context:
Because of climate change, inducing increasingly long, frequent and intense heatwaves, and urbanisation changing urban micro-climatic conditions (e.g. urban heat island effect), both outdoor and indoor overheating become a major issue for cities and public health. In this context, the PEPR VDBI project VF++ ("Cool Cities by and for Users: Integrating Soft, Green, and Grey Solutions to Promote the Health of Inhabitants in a Sustainable Environment") aims to study the links between urban planning/building, heat and health, as defined by the WHO, at the individual scale to contribute to creating sustainable cities and innovative buildings. The research goals of this project are mainly to develop methods to:
• Understand the interactions between physical environments and individuals’ psychological and physiological reactions as well as their experiences of ambience and practices, depending on socio-spatial specificities.
• Analyse the effects of these interactions on health, in a context of overheating.
• Assess the relevance and robustness of integrative heat-adaptation strategies concerning health.
The present work is a part of the VF++ project. More specifically, it focuses on individual vulnerability factors affecting physiological responses induced by thermal stress, and their numerical modelling for applications to thermal comfort and health.

Research question and objectives:
During the summer of 2023, the French public health agency recorded 20,000 emergency entrances for heat-related illness and 5,000 deaths due to heat. People identified as vulnerable are elderly people, young children or exposed people due to their work or their housing. Moreover, studies highlight that extreme heat has a great impact on the well-being of populations not identified as epidemiologically vulnerable. In complement to statistical analyses of registers, experimental measurements and social surveys, numerical modelling can improve our understanding of heat stress and the associated experiences. In particular, thermophysiological models simulate heat transfer between the human body and the environment, within the human body and thermoregulatory responses. These models and the associated thermal comfort and heat stress indices supported the development of exposure limits for industrial, military and sports applications. However, they generally simulate a specific population: young healthy "standard" men, while many inter-individual variability factors (age, sex, height, weight, physical capacity, etc.) change the body thermal properties, the thermoregulation capacity and the individual heat vulnerability.
Moreover, physiological vulnerability evolves in response to exposure and over time. In the short term, repeated exposure can deteriorate the recovery capacity, inducing heat-related illness. Over several days, a prolonged exposure leads to temporary physiological adaptations called acclimatisation. These adaptations decrease the risk of heat-related illness and improve thermal comfort. However, the effects of history exposure, notably acclimatisation, are not taken into account in current thermophysiological models.
Thus, the aim of this thesis is to better understand the effects of inter- and intra-individual vulnerability factors and history exposure, and to integrate them into thermophysiological models. Eventually, the aim is to adapt models to different types of vulnerable populations to improve risk prevention and to help people adapt to the heat.

Methods:
The physiological variability and vulnerability factors will first be studied based on data produced by VF++ partners or by other projects (H3Sensing, MSIC), compared to an in-depth literature review and interviews with physicians and researchers. The work will then focus on modelling the physiological factors identified as the most impactful in thermophysiological models. For that purpose, the relevance of different models (e.g. Gagge’s, JOS-3 and NHTM) will be discussed through model analysis and inter-comparisons. The models will be adapted and tested against physiological data collected in the project and in partner projects.
In relation to other VF++ tasks, this PhD student will participate in the definition of output indicators from thermophysiological models and their thresholds to study health risk. According to the outputs selected, a meta-model of health risk distribution according to individual parameters distribution in a population and simplified thermal exposure data could be developed.

Funding:
This thesis is funded by the PEPR VDBI, supported by the Université Gustave Eiffel and the CNRS, as part of the Plan France 2030 set up by the French government and managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

Where to apply

E-mail [e-mail]

Requirements

Research Field Engineering » Thermal engineering Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

Expected Skills:
• Master's degree in thermal or thermo-physiology sciences.
• Numerical modelling and simulations, Data processing, Literature review.
• A strong interest in collaborative and interdisciplinary work and the VF++ project.