The Ordinary Nature of Thunderstorm Asthma by Jifan Hu

The Ordinary Nature Of Thunderstorm Asthma

JIFAN HU (Freya) S3697221

Thunderstorm, by Sean Conte & Nelson Correia, 2017, <https://dailymedfact.com/thunderstorm-asthma/>

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1.ABSTRACT This research paper allows us to find the impact of thunderstorm asthma in Melbourne through using some digital methods to analyze and focus on the health problem caused by the urban condition in order to avoid it effectively in the future city design.

Keywords : Thunderstorm asthma, City design, Melbourne

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The Ordinary Nature of

THUNDERSTORM ASTHMA 3

THUNDERSTORM ASTHMA

by JIFAN HU (Fre ya)

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CONTENT

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CONTENT OF THIS VISUAL ESSAY

1. ABSTRACT 2.INTRODUCTION 3.FINDINGS

3.1 PART ONE The research for specificity 3.2 PART TWO The data analyzing and respond to research question with density map 3.3 PART THREE Choosing special site 3.4 PART FOUR The data analyzing with CloudCompare

4. SITE ANALYZING 5. RECOMMENDATIONS 6. CONSLUSION 7. REFERENCE LIST

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2 INTRODUCTION Many cities’ development has their own special reason and natural condition, it may because of their topography, the river around them or it may because of the special existed weather. This can also contribute several problems for the city. As the rapid growth of the modern city, more and more people live in the city than ever before. A large amount of people means the city needs to face more challenges, such as waste recycling, sewage treatment, air pollution.

However, these problems can be controlled easily by people, the more difficult problem is a meteorological phenomenon, such as the sandstorm, thunderstorms and dust storms. The weather cannot be mastered by human and these natural phenomena will ease caused damage not only for the city,but also for people living in it.

This research focus is on the effects and damage,especially the disease caused by the storm. The thunderstorm in Melbourne, which accounts for thunderstorm asthma and made many people died every year. Besides, it will also find how the storm affects the way the city is designed and the way to face this epidemic thunderstorm asthma in Melbourne 2030. The first step is comparing my hometown with Melbourne and finding the similar problem they facing, which is the storm. In addition, according to the data analyzing and map research, the research will solve the question “With the increase of urban population in Melbourne, how can Melbourne effectively reduce casualty numbers in face of an environment such as the epidemic thunderstorm asthma?”

In order to find better ways to solve this problem, the research uses analyzing methods for aircraft map. The data used in the research to analyse the city condition including the residential data, population data, traffic data, green space data , the hospital location data and so on. These data are gathered from the OPEN DATA. Firstly, using these important data to analyse their density and get the density map in Google Earth and GIS, which will show the area can be focussed on in the deep research from large scale to small scale.

Secondly, utilizing the Cloud Compare to show the city’s features in different levels. After that, the special area has been found in Melbourne to continue analyzing and a strategy will be made to solve the research problem.

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This research aims to help the city of Melbourne to build their ability and make it can effectively confront the accident like thunderstorm asthma in 2030. Besides, the most important thing is to give the proposal to the city healthcare and development in landscape designer's view. The set of pictures shown are steps of the research analyzing and the data collecting and the exploring.

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FINDINGS 3.1 PART ONE The research for specificity

FIGURE 1 It shows the sandstorm happens in Chinfeng, Inner Mongolia, China.

Sandstorm happens every year, especially in April. The wind will blow sand, which make people cannot breathe normally and a large amount of people may cause breath disease. Besides, sandstorm also reduce visibility, which has influence on traffic and the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s running.

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DUST

DUST

DUST

FIGURE 2 It shows the natural conditions in the city. The satellite map shows the sandstorm form and spread reason. Lacking of plants, which can make sand fixation, and have little water is the main reason for the occurrence of this sand-dust.

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FIGURE 3 This pic ture shows t hat t he s cene when the thunderstorm happens in Melbourne. Thunderstorms often occur with strong wind and rainfall from October to February every year. Elevated temperatures can cause plants to produce large amounts of allergens such as pollen and thunderstorms can cause pollen particles to break up and spread rapidly with strong wind. Therefore, people who are allergic to pollen are more likely to get sick, and the most serious one is allergic asthma. It is also called in thunderstorm asthma because of thunderstorm weather.

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Figure 4 This satellite map shows the geographical environment around Melbourne. The geographical location of the sea determines the direction of the monsoon every summer. The wind blows from the ocean to land, which is more conducive to pollen diffusion. Urban population is relatively concentrated, and urban conditions also aggravate the outbreak of thunderstorm asthma to a certain extent.

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The research question

With the development of society, the population has begun to concentrate in cities, which will make some seasonal diseases outbreak more quickly, and will affect more people. Cities are a special environment and need to find better ways to cope with disease outbreaks, such as dust storms in ChiFeng and thunderstorm asthma in Melbourne. By 2030, Melbourne's population will be twice as large as it is today, and the size of the city will be further expanded. Thunderstorm asthma is a problem Melbourne has to face every year. In the past few years, there have been several large scale thunderstorm asthma outbreaks, which causing many deaths. Although Melbourne has also made some changes to better face the situation, the purpose of this research is to find more effective ways to cope with the occurrence of thunderstorm asthma, and to find solutions from the urban perspective and landscape designer perspective.

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FINDINGS

3.2 PART TWO The data analyzing and respond to research question with density map

After the research question has been decided, the next part is analyzing the relation between the thunderstorm asthma and the city of Melbourne.

Using density map made by GIS and the cloud point map can help me find the area, which will be influences by thunderstorm asthma in Melbourne, from large scale to a special scale.

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FIGURE 5 The hot spot map shows the density of the residential area and the hospital location in Melbourne. The map was made by the Spatial Analyst Tools in GIS. From this map, we can easy find the density in different area. More people live in this area. It means more thunderstorm asthma will happen. The dark color stand for the area has a large population. On the contrary, the light purple means few people live here and we can also find some special area nearly has no people. Besides, points in the map are the location of the hospital in Melbourne, which means people in these areas can be easier to get help when the thunderstorm asthma attack them.

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FIGURE 6 This hot spot maps show the plant density in Melbourne. It can show the location of each plant. The plant density decides how much pollen will be produced in the thunderstorm season, because the main allergy which will cause thunderstorm asthma is the seed made by special trees or flowers. In this density map, the dark green area means the area has more plants. On the opposite, the light green indicates that there are fewer plants and also have less pollen.

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FIGURE 7 The density map displays the helping out existed in the city.

Helping out is the organization provides a list of free and cheap support services, includes food, accommodation, health services and so on. If people, especially old people and young people need help when they get thunderstorm asthma. The helping out point may help them timely. The hot spot map displays the position of them. The area in dark purple is the surrounding field has more helping out point.

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FIGURE 8 The hot spot map shows the traffic system in Melbourne. If people have thunderstorm asthma, they will go to hospital, because of that, the traffic system is also a key point for the city to focus on. The point line displays the main roads in Melbourne, and the traffic will change in the future. According to the asthma problem, the traffic design will be influenced by it. In this map made by GIS, the area with deep color stand for these area has more convenient traffic.

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THERMAL

FIGURE 9 This density map is made by GIS and the data is collected from Open Data. It is a thermal map of Melbourne, which can display the temperature in a special area. Through the information collecting on the internet, the rising temperature is also a main reason for thunderstorm asthma happen. Because the high temperature can make the air become stable, when pollen and other allergen spread in the air, the space with high temperature is difficult to make the pollen away. The red area in the map means the area has a high temperature.On the opposite, the blue area means the land produce less heat and the temperature here is lower than other area.

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Sources: Esri, HERE, Garmin, Intermap, increment P Corp., GEBC Survey, Esri Japan, METI, Esri China (Hong Kong), swisstopo, Š O

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MELBOURNE

FINDINGS 3.3 PART THREE Choosing special site

CARLTON

THE SITE

These fingers focus on special area from large scale to the small scale, through the hot map analyzing, I found some useful details about this area, which may have a connection with thunderstorm asthma. This site has a hospital, and the Carlton Garden is beside the hospital. In addition, this area is located in the centre of Carlton, Melbourne. A huge amount of people live here.

CO, USGS, FAO, NPS, NRCAN, GeoBase, IGN, Kadaster NL, Ordnance OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community

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FINDINGS

3.4 PART FOUR The data analyzing with CloudCompare

After using GIS to analyse the data and made the density maps about the conditions have relationship with thunderstorm asthmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happen and find the special site to analyzing , the next step is using Cloud Point program to get the point model and delete the useless points in the model. It makes the model more pertinent to the analysis of specific height and topography.

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FIGURE 10 This picture is made by Cloud Compare, which is a program that can cut off the useless points from Melbourne’s point cloud model.

With the help of it, I choose the special area which I think can continue my research about thunderstorm asthma and output it’s model. Through using the command convert to scalar, the program can display the cloud point with specific height. This picture is the cloud with plants’ height in the area, and we can find the tree and grass. This is the source of pollen when thunderstorm asthma happen.

VEGERTATION LEVEL

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FIGURE 11 This cloud point map is the height of low residential, from this cloud map, we can see the residential in this area for our research.

Owing to air circulation, a series of particles, such as pollen and dust, which can cause asthma, will stay at a certain height. Due to this, in the process of residential area construction and urban design, cities will try to avoid people living at this height, or to avoid people's contact with allergens, which can trigger asthma. When thunderstorms occur, due to the role of the pressure system.

This should be avoided as far as possible.

RESIDENTIAL LEVEL

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TALL BUILDING LEVEL

CLASSIFIED POINT CLOUD

FIGURE 12 & 13 These two figures, one shows the top of this area using the cloud point. The top of the building is the space with the highest temperature and has no plants here. And the other picture is the whole site which I choose to do my research about thunderstorm asthma in Melbourne. The reason I choose is the conditions. This site has the typical feature of a thunderstorm happen. According to the data, the problem and the solution will be founded.

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FITZROY GARDENS

ST VINCENT'S HOSPITAL S T V I N C E N T ' S MELBOURNE RIVATE HOSPITAL

CARLTON GARDENS

SECTION

This is a section of the site. We can see the traffic stops for bus and tram. In my opinion, if we want to know the effects made by thunderstorm asthma in Melbourne and find the way for the city to effectively solve this health problem in 2030, there are many items we should analyse. Because of that, traffic condition is also important for this research. For people who need help, the traffic is the main condition which will decide if they can get help effectively. It is also the reason to account for the hospital always have many traffic stops here.

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SITE ANALYZING

After choosing my venue and collect the information about it, I begin to research my site with digital program, the Google Earth and GIS. This method can help me analyse my problem and find the solution for it. Because my research problem is that the city cannot deal with the situation of thunderstorm asthma explode efficiently.

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Development Activity Model, City of Melbourne, 2019,<https://developmentactivity.melbourne.vic.gov.au/>

In this figure, we can see there are several tall building will be built in the future. On one hand, these buildings include office and apartment, which will make the number of population increase until 2030. On the other hand, the Carlton Garden can make a large amount of pollen in the thunderstorm season, and may contribute epidemic thunderstorm asthma in this area.

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In this figure, it shows the current area and the main location in the neighbouring area. From that, we can also find the main function for the buildings here. Through analyzing this location data with the help of Google Map and Google Earth, these useful data can help find the connection between the thunderstorm asthma happen and the site function characteristics.

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In this figure, it shows the buildings which will be build in the future. We can find there will be several buildings which have the functions including living, working and shopping. More people are living here, which means that thunderstorm asthma will get worse once it breaks out.

Because of that, it need our designer to find the way to help the healthcare apartment and the city development apartment solve or reduce this problem in these special area.

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The three sections figures are generated by the point cloud model using the cloud compares, which aims at finding the relationships between old buildings, new buildings and plants in the site. It also displays the changes about the conditions a few years ago, now and in the future.There are more and more residential and apartment building in the future means more and more people, including children and old people, will live this area.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

After analyzing the site and it development plan, the next step is to give the proposal for the city's healthcare and development in landscape designer's view.

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THEORY KEY THINKERS

POLICY

”Air pollution was not a factor.“ ”New episodes of asthma were a ss o ci a te d wi th a f a ll in a ir t e mp e r a t u r e and a rise in grass pollen concentration.“

”The impact of climate change presents serious environmental, economic and health challenges. Some people will be at higher risk of health problems related to weather and climate change impacts“ ”Epidemic thunderstorm asthma events are thought to be triggered by an uncommon combination of high grass pollen levels and a cer tain t ype of thunderstorm" Victorian Public Health And Wellbeing Plan School Policy Of Asthma

Celenza, Antonio

Hon Jill Hennessy

N a t iona l A s thm a Council’s Asthma Action Plan

Victorian Asthma Action Plans

Melbourne Health Strategic Plan MEL BOURNE, A SUSTAINABLE CITY

children's service and school specific Asthma Action Plans

Robert Doyle Dr Gareth Goodier

G.E.Packe JonG.Ayres

Education and Training Apartment

East Birmingham Hospital

TIME

Board Chair Chief Executive

Asthma Australia

British Medical Association

Minister for Health Minister for Ambulance Services Urban Forest strategy

Communication Plan Emergency Response Plan

PROJECT

INSTITUTION

Melbourne Convention Bureau

Stormwater harvesting

Resilient Communities

1980‘S

2010‘S

2030‘S

In order to solve the problems more effectively, I studied the academic development pedigree of the related problems, and sought solutions from the perspective of landscape designers.

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DETAIL METHODS

The figure is the method I use to improve health support for people, especially children and elderly, which can be achieved by planning special trees which cannot produce pollen for thunderstorm asthma and build a new hospital to help people in thunderstorm asthma.

The figure is focused on the street along the buildings and parking and traffic space around the hospital. Compared it with those other sections, they are more specific and zoom into a scale with more details. Setting this parking space for people to come to the hospital helps people get the health support timely.

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The main allergen causing thunderstorm asthma is the seeds of grass. A large number of lawns will inevitably produce a large number of allergens, thus increasing the incidence of thunderstorm asthma in this area. In view of this situation, we can change the open space from the aspect of landscape design, reduce the area of grassland, and replace it with other plants or hard pavement.

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This proposal can also be used in other open spaces in Melbourne city, which can help the city development apartment build a more healthy city with less thunderstorm asthma effect.

Having a system of nearly 480 hectares of public parks and gardens.

The city have 70,000 council-owned trees and grassland 36

SHORT TERM In short term, the number of plant area and the green space area in the city increase gradually.

Because of the increasing of plants area, the temperature of the city will decrease 0.5-2.0 degree.

Low city temperature will make the air circulation more quick and when the pollen spread in the air, it will make it disappeared in a short time, which will decrease the possibility of thunderstorm happen.

plant area city temperature

green area in the city lawn area in the city

2020

2030

2040

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LONG TERM In long term,the city's temperature will steable in a normal level, and the number of plants will increasing gradually. Because of these changing, the thunderstorm asthma will have less impact and the number of people have thunderstorm asthma and the died number will also decrease.

city temperature

people have thunderstorm asthma

people died beacause of thunderstorm asthma

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2040

2050

2060

CASE STUDY In 1845, a massive outbreak of cholera in London resulted in many deaths. Doctor John Snow discovered that the cause of the cholera outbreak was the use of contaminated groundwater. The spread of the disease was eventually controlled by closing polluted water sources and allowing people to use clean water.

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6 CONCLUSION With the whole process of this research, many digital methods are used to analyse the problem from large scale to a special scale step by steps. Firstly, I compared the specific feature between Melbourne and my hometown and I found both of them have the storm which will cause the health problem.

Because of that, I choose the topic of Melbourne is to search the way to help it efficiently face the thunderstorm asthma until 2030. After that, I used hot spot maps which collecting data from Open Data in Melbourne and ArcMap to analyse data, so the density map can be shown in large scale of Melbourne.

It shows the density of residential and the plant location, which can help to analyse the area easy affected by thunderstorm asthma. Then I used a Development Activity Model to find the future building location. According to that, people in the city will increase and the situation changed because of the development of Melbourne. It also means more and more people will have thunderstorm asthma and may need help. I concentrate on how to make the city can face thunderstorm asthma more efficiently. Next, I get digital model from the Open Data after using Google Earth and put the model into the cloud point model at the same time. Through analyzing, I delete the useless point and get the special site in small scale to do my research. The next step is using the height program to choose the points at specified height. I have the model map and the section of my site, which can help me to see the relationship between the building and the surrounding area,especially the plant's location.

It is important to search the problem finding from the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s condition and future development through data analyzing and using digital methods. In addition, data should support the solution for the landscape problem. Start with the large-scale and then using the data collected to make the site change from large-scale to a small and special scale. Select a relatively small scale under data screening to design my proposal, and then make a model with digital software. The digital model can be used to find the way to solve the problem. In this research, the issue is Melbourne has to face the attack by thunderstorms and thunderstorm can cause the thunderstorm asthma which makes a large amount of people sick or even die. However, the city cannot solve this problem and there is not enough support can be given to people.

This problem has the connection with the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traffic, number of medical institutions and plants which produce pollen for the thunderstorm asthma. In order to solve this problem from landscape designer's view, I plant more trees which is safe for people and make the landscape space have more plants to make the temperature decrease and change the grassland into hard pavement, which can make the air circulation and make the pollen in the air blow away quickly.

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After all research steps finished, there are some problems, which should be solved, for Melbourne. The most important problem is the city lack of the ability to face the outbreak of thunderstorm asthma. According to the data analysis, this situation has existed with a long history in the development of Melbourne. With the increasing population of nowadays, the condition in the city of invisibly increases people's risk of asthma and it is a serious problem should be considered by healthcare apartment and development apartment.

However, landscape development can effectively solve this problem, because it has become an important part of the city.

The digital method using the research is useful and provide a new way for us to analyse the problem in the city. Data analysis can make our research more logical, reliable and intuitive to others. Making full use of data analysis tools, like GIS and Cloud Compare, can help researchers find problems in cities more effectively, and can carry out more profound and targeted research from different aspects, so as to propose solutions. In this research, I get the specific item I want to focus on according to compare the characteristic between my hometown and Melbourne. Next, I found the question about thunderstorm asthma in Melbourne. Then I collect data related to my research and put data into digital program to analyse. After that, I get my density maps and the model. Finally, I using the data results and give me proposal in landscape perspective about how to solve this problem for Melbourne in 2030. This visual essay is only a start for Melbourne to deal with the health problem caused by thunderstorm and landscape design can make more contribution for the development between the city's health and the urban in the future.

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REFERENCES

1. Celenza, A., Fothergill, J., Kupek, E. & Shaw, R.J. 1996, "Thunderstorm associated asthma: A detailed analysis of environmental factors", British medical journal, vol. 312, no. 7031, pp. 604, viewed on 19th 2019, <https://www.bmj.com/ content/312/7031/604>.

2. Lee, J., Kronborg, C., O'Hehir, R.,E. & Hew, M. 2017, "Who's at risk of thunderstorm asthma? The ryegrass pollen trifecta and lessons learnt from the Melbourne thunderstorm epidemic", Respiratory medicine, vol. 132, pp. 146-148, viewed 01 May, 2019, <https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ docview/1983449318/D7FF02AD82394F04PQ/15?accountid=13552>.

3. Open Space Strategy, City Of Melbourne, viewed on 19th May 2019,<https:// www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/open-space-strategy.pdf>.

4. The November 2016 Victorian epidemic thunderstorm asthma event: an assessment of the health impacts, viewed 01 May, 2019, <https://www2.health. vic.gov.au/Api/downloadmedia/%257B459A8B36-7C70-4C0E-861E-C648BBF4C 818%257D+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au>.

5. Victorian public health and wellbeing plan 2015–2019，State Government of Victoria， viewed on 19th May 2019, <https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/about/ health-strategies/public-health-wellbeing-plan>.

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In the whole process of my research, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my mentor for the knowledge he has explained to us in class and for his guidance on the problems I have encountered in the process of my research. At the same time, I want to also thank my classmates for their help after class.

45 pages, 29 illustrations Published in Melbourne, Australia Master of Landscape Architecture School of Architecture and Urban Design Royal Melbourne Institue of Technology

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THE ORDINARY NATURE OF THUNDERSTORM ASTHMA

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