scholarly journals Public health evidence for the UK’s Third Climate Change Risk Assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Kovats ◽  
R Brisley ◽  
P Watkiss ◽  
G Turner
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
The Third ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Planned Adaptation

Abstract Background The UK has a statutory requirement under the Climate Change Act (2008) to undertake a Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) every five years. The Evidence Report for the Third CCRA, due 2021, will identify the most important current and future risks and opportunities to public health from climate change. It also considers whether present and planned adaptation strategies to are sufficient to manage the risks or additional action is required. Methods The analysis underpinning this review assesses whether risks and actions improve or exacerbate adverse health outcomes and inequalities. This paper reports on the CCRA3 evidence review, which considers the current and likely future impacts of changing flood risk, heatwaves, coastal change, air pollution, vector-borne disease and water quality on public health and healthcare delivery. All risks are assessed by their magnitude, as well as scored by urgency to address them. Results This paper presents the findings for two risks - from heat and coastal flooding impacts on population health and communities. A key focus has been to explore how climate change and policy responses affect the health of vulnerable groups and who could be further disadvantaged by inappropriate adaptation policies. This includes new analysis of the climate risks to health within the built environment and within the health and social care sector. The long-term health consequences of climate change have been considered through potential policy, building and environmental “lock-in”. Such lock-ins include potential risks to inhabitants from overheating due to building regulations failing to address increasing ambient temperatures or homes being built on flood plains. Conclusions Climate change presents challenges to deliver national policy responses ensuring that adaptation remains equitable and optimal for health. The CCRA3 Evidence Report will inform the third UK National Adaptation Plan, setting out Government actions for 2023-2028. Key messages Assess current and future risks and opportunities to public health from climate change. Assess present and planned adaptation strategies for management of risks.

scholarly journals Handling Interdependencies in Climate Change Risk Assessment

Climate ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1079-1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Climate Change Risk

scholarly journals Coastal and river flood risk analyses for guiding economically optimal flood adaptation policies: a country-scale study for Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 376 (2121) ◽  
pp. 20170329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toon Haer ◽  
W. J. Wouter Botzen ◽  
Vincent van Roomen ◽  
Harry Connor ◽  
Jorge Zavala-Hidalgo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Flood Protection ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Flood Adaptation

Many countries around the world face increasing impacts from flooding due to socio-economic development in flood-prone areas, which may be enhanced in intensity and frequency as a result of climate change. With increasing flood risk, it is becoming more important to be able to assess the costs and benefits of adaptation strategies. To guide the design of such strategies, policy makers need tools to prioritize where adaptation is needed and how much adaptation funds are required. In this country-scale study, we show how flood risk analyses can be used in cost–benefit analyses to prioritize investments in flood adaptation strategies in Mexico under future climate scenarios. Moreover, given the often limited availability of detailed local data for such analyses, we show how state-of-the-art global data and flood risk assessment models can be applied for a detailed assessment of optimal flood-protection strategies. Our results show that especially states along the Gulf of Mexico have considerable economic benefits from investments in adaptation that limit risks from both river and coastal floods, and that increased flood-protection standards are economically beneficial for many Mexican states. We discuss the sensitivity of our results to modelling uncertainties, the transferability of our modelling approach and policy implications. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy’.

Exploring machine learning potential for climate change risk assessment

2021 ◽  
pp. 103752
Author(s):  
Federica Zennaro ◽  
Elisa Furlan ◽  
Christian Simeoni ◽  
Silvia Torresan ◽  
Sinem Aslan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Climate Change Risk

scholarly journals Toward an integrated system of climate change and human health indicators: a conceptual framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 166 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Y. Liu ◽  
Juli M. Trtanj ◽  
Erin K. Lipp ◽  
John M. Balbus
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Science And Policy

AbstractEnvironmental health indicators are helpful for tracking and communicating complex health trends, informing science and policy decisions, and evaluating public health actions. When provided on a national scale, they can help inform the general public, policymakers, and public health professionals about important trends in exposures and how well public health systems are preventing those exposures from causing adverse health outcomes. There is a growing need to understand national trends in exposures and health outcomes associated with climate change and the effectiveness of climate adaptation strategies for health. To date, most indicators for health implications of climate change have been designed as independent, individual metrics. This approach fails to take into account how exposure-outcome pathways for climate-attributable health outcomes involve multiple, interconnected components. We propose reframing climate change and health indicators as a linked system of indicators, which can be described as follows: upstream climate drivers affect environmental states, which then determine human exposures, which ultimately lead to health outcomes; these climate-related risks are modified by population vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies. We apply this new conceptual framework to three illustrative climate-sensitive health outcomes and associated exposure-outcome pathways: pollen allergies and asthma, West Nile virus infection, and vibriosis.

Integrated climate change risk assessment and evaluation of adaptation perspective in southern Punjab, Pakistan

2018 ◽  
Vol 628-629 ◽  
pp. 1422-1436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Qayyum Aslam ◽  
Iftikhar Ahmad ◽  
Sajid Rashid Ahmad ◽  
Yawar Hussain ◽  
Muhammad Sameem Hussain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
Assessment And Evaluation

How to model the impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases?

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-31
Author(s):  
Cyril Caminade
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This expert opinion provides an overview of mathematical models that have been used to assess the impact of climate change on ticks and tick-borne diseases, ways forward in terms of improving models for the recent context and broad guidelines for conducting future climate change risk assessment.

Health and Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Watts
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Health System ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Climate Change And Health

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Please check back later for the full article. There are three important linkages to explore between climate change and health in terms of potential policy responses. The first of these linkages relates to the impacts on health resulting from climate change. In 2009, The Lancet described climate change as “the greatest global health threat of the 21st century,” referencing the direct and indirect effects it is having on public health. While a number of impacts are directly observable (i.e., an increased frequency and severity of many extreme weather events), others are more indirect, being mediated through environmental and social systems (i.e., the health complications associated with mass migration or violent conflict). Further, it is well understood that resilience and adaptive capacity play an important role in reducing these impacts—often leaving low-income communities worse off than most. The second important linkage between climate change and health relates to the co-benefits of mitigation and adaptation. Policy responses to climate change will inevitably come with both intended and unforseen externalities and “side-effects” (both positive and negative). Traditional public health tools, such as health impact assessment, can be valuable in identifying and understanding these co-benefits to better guide policy. Indeed, many of the mitigation solutions yield substantial benefits for public health: switching away from coal-fired power plants as an energy choice improves cardiovascular and respiratory health; designing cities which are cycle- and pedestrian-friendly increases rates of physical activity (helping to tackle obesity, diabetes, many cancers, and heart disease) while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Finally, the health system itself has an important role in responding directly to climate change. This is frequently understood in terms of a health facility’s ability to withstand and respond to the impacts of climate change, and to the adaptive capacity of the health system itself. But there is also a role for the health system to play in reducing its own emissions. In countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, the formal health system is responsible for as much as 3–8% of national emissions, and has subsequently made commitments to reduce its environmental impact. A 2013 review of the UK National Health Service’s carbon footprint indicated that as much as 60% of this came from procurement, 17% from building energy, and 13% from health system–related transport. A number of the solutions available are often designed in a way that improves patient outcomes and satisfaction, while reducing the costs of healthcare. In low- and middle-income countries, the focus is placed on ensuring access to reliable electricity, a task well suited to decentralized micro-grids with sustainable power generation. Academic literature on the topic of health and climate change has expanded rapidly in recent years and includes the 2009 and 2015 Lancet Commissions on health and climate change, the 2010 series on the health co-benefits of mitigation, and the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 5th Assessment Report.

Incorporating climate change risk assessment into infrastructure planning

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. Nelson ◽  
Kathy Freas
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Infrastructure Planning ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
Design Procedures ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Wastewater Infrastructure ◽  
Water And Wastewater ◽  
Typical Design

Planning and design for water and wastewater infrastructure is typically based on past climate patterns assuming that these patterns will continue through the design period of the targeted infrastructure. Given the evidence of climate change and increasing uncertainty in hydrometerological events including changes in the intensity, timing, form, and distribution of precipitation and runoff typical design procedures carry a risk of being inadequate through the life cycle of installed infrastructure compromising the flexibility and reliability of water and wastewater infrastructure systems. Incorporating climate risk assessment into infrastructure planning accommodates the emerging need for planning and design of water and wastewater infrastructure to long-term service that protects public health and provides the full service intended.

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