Quantifying SLODs Risk and Mitigation Potential in Urban BE: A Behavioural Based Approach

User behavioural response to environmental conditions in the urban Built Environment (BE) can alter the users individual risks to Slow Onset Disasters (SLODs), especially in outdoor scenarios. Herein, micro-climate-related stress, users’ vulnerabilities and exposure contributes to the users’ reaction and to the susceptibility to SLODs effects on health. A “behavioural-based” approach is proposed and tested in this chapter, merging all of these domains into a simulation perspective and evaluating quantitatively SLOD risk on health. The proposed methodology relies on the virtual simulationBehaviourssimulation of the BE scenario to determine micro-climateMicro-climate conditions, and enable users’ behaviour prediction, so as to derive time-dependant users’ risk in public open spaces due to heat stress and air pollution stress. Key performance indicators are further proposed by considering the users’ stress levels depending on their SLOD-affected distribution in the open spaces and on their individual vulnerabilities. In particular, the developed risk indicators quantify short-term effects such as sweat rate, water loss and health affection rate probability. The method can be used to evaluate current scenarios conditions as well as the implementation of mitigation strategies, which are summarized in this chapter also in relation to their impacts on users’ behaviours in outdoors. The overall proposed risk assessment methodology can be then combined to the procedures for analysing users’ vulnerability and exposure exposed in Chap.  2 , to match together risk factors according to the assumed “behavioural-based” approachBehavioural based approach and support decision makers in mitigation strategies prioritization and evaluation.