Media-Based Post-Event Impact Analysis of the 2021 Heat Dome in Canada

Abstract

The unprecedented 2021 Heat Dome caused wide-ranging and long-lasting impacts in western Canada, including 619 confirmed heat-related deaths in British Columbia, a doubling of emergency medical calls, increased hospitalisations, infrastructure failures and stress on plants and animals. However, such varied socio-economic consequences of extreme heat can be challenging to capture using a single post-event analysis method. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative approaches and data sources. Using the 2021 Heat Dome as a case study, a post-event analysis using online news media articles (n = 2909) from 5 subscription news databases and a grey literature search was conducted to identify the socio-economic impacts of the extreme heat event in Canada. The articles reported a wide range of effects to the natural environment (n = 1366), social infrastructure and services (n = 1121), human health (n = 1074), critical infrastructure (n = 988) and the private sector (n = 165). The media-based post-event analysis captured various impacts, some of which have not been identified through other data sources and approaches. Overall, we show that media analysis can complement traditional post-event analysis methods and provide additional perspectives to governments and public health and safety officials.

Keywords: Extreme heat event; climate change; heat wave; impact analysis; risk communication.

Figure 1.

PRISMA-ScR flow diagram of search and study selection process. Abbreviation: PRISMA-ScR, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses for Scoping Reviews.

Figure 2.

Visual depiction of the themes and concepts identified in the media post-event impact analysis of the 2021 Heat Dome. Each outer circle represents a theme identified in the media articles, with the nested circles representing the concepts identified. The size of the circle represents the dominance of the theme or concept.