Learning Outcomes
After successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
• Describe basic concepts such as extreme weather and understand climate change issues.
• Define concepts such as climate, weather, environment and mortality.
• To appreciate the relationship between people and the natural environment.
• Relate public health risks to climate, environment, insects and interannual changes.
• Interrelate climate change with insect reproduction and movement and assess the implications of these phenomena for public health.
• To connect the atmospheric environment and the interactions of the climate with man.
• To relate the immunobiological system to the natural environment.
• To assess air pollution and its effects on public health.
• Define concepts related to drinking water and correctly evaluate its quality control.
• Assess the biological origin of allergens and relate them to atmospheric phenomena.
Course Content (Syllabus)
1. INTENSE WEATHER PHENOMENA - CLIMATE CHANGE
2. PREDICTION OF SEVERE WEATHER PHENOMENA
3. CLIMATE MODELS – CLIMATE DATA
4. ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
5. CLIMATE - WEATHER - ENVIRONMENT AND MORTALITY
6. INSECTS, MAN AND THE ENVIRONMENT
7. HUMANS, ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CONNECTIONS AND INTERACTIONS
8. DRINKING WATER - QUALITY CONTROL
9. ALLERGENS OF BIOLOGICAL ORIGIN IN THE ATMOSPHERE
10. SUSPENDING PARTICLES OF THE ATMOSPHERE
Additional bibliography for study
1. The simulation of European heat waves from an ensemble of regional climate models within the EURO-CORDEX project
2. Regional climate hindcast simulations within EURO-CORDEX: evaluation of a WRF multi-physics ensemble
3. Reviews and perspectives of high impact atmospheric processes in the Mediterranean
4. Climatological aspects of extreme precipitation in Europe, related to mid-latitude cyclonic systems
5. A study of fog characteristics using a coupled WRF–COBEL model over Thessaloniki airport, Greece
6. Fog characteristics at the airport of Thessaloniki, Greece
7. Characteristics of the extreme warm and cold days over Greece
8. Assessment of the surface water quality in Northern Greece
9. Chemical characterization and source identification/apportionment of fine and coarse air particles in Thessaloniki, Greece
10. Assessment of the environmental hazard from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment sludge by employing chemical and biological methods
11. Toxicity and heavy metal contamination of surficial sediments from the Bay of Thessaloniki (Northwestern Aegean Sea) Greece
12. A study of surface water quality in Macedonia, Greece: Speciation of nitrogen and phosphorus
13. PM10-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Greater Area of Athens, Greece
14. Chemical mass balance source apportionment of PM10 in an industrialized urban area of Northern Greece