Co-developed Environmental Solutions to Mitigate the Impact of Temperature Extremes on the Health of Vulnerable Populations

共同开发环境解决方案，以减轻极端温度对弱势群体健康的影响

• 批准号: NE/Y503241/1
• 负责人: Justin Sheffield
• 金额: $ 325.17万
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FY503241%2F1
• 关键词: Co; developed; Environmental; Solutions; Mitigate

The physiological and cognitive impacts of extreme temperatures are known in general and mostly for healthy populations, but little is known about how impacts differ across the diversity of the UK population; in particular, those with multiple health conditions, including neurological, who are likely to be the most impacted, and for which interventions (e.g. green spaces) are poorly targeted or non-existent. Furthermore, we do not have tools to integrate available data to understand temperature-health risks nationally and at the necessary individual and household level, and therefore how to target interventions. More broadly, the evidence is lacking to guide policy on the coupled challenges of health inequalities, urban planning and climate change mitigation/adaptation, under uncertain futures of climate and demographic change.Increases in heatwaves are a robust aspect of climate change, with associated increases in health-related deaths. Cold-related mortality has declined with overall warming, yet still far outweighs the increase in heat-related deaths, and the overall burden of cold-related illness and mortality will remain high with an ageing population. Most research on health outcomes has focused on excess mortality rates and limited to broad vulnerability groupings. Health outcomes are, however, much more nuanced, being related to both physical and mental health and exacerbated by underlying conditions including neurological and mental ill health, with exposure related to context specific temperature-humidity thresholds.Therefore, there are significant gaps in our understanding of health risks (including long-term outcomes) for the most vulnerable, and how this relates to the interplay between variability of temperature hazards and outdoor/indoor exposure as driven by socio-economic gradients and mobility. We therefore envisage developing new knowledge and tools for precise risk assessment and targeted interventions, focused on disproportionately impacted groups. By doing so, we will transform our understanding of the drivers of inequalities in temperature related health outcomes and propose using this to inform policy on levelling up and pathways to climate targets.We will realise our vision through an ambitious but feasible, highly multidisciplinary project that is necessary to address this complex problem. Our aim is to transform our understanding of the risk of temperature impacts on health outcomes for vulnerable populations of England and Wales with particular focus on health inequalities, currently and for future scenarios, and identify environmental solutions, directly addressing the overarching funding call objective. Our approach is multi-scale, with high granularity in both space and time: a) linking national scale risk assessment with detailed urban case studies to understand risks at the level of streets/buildings and vulnerable groups; and b) identifying how risks change with future changes in climate, demographics, mobility and health status. National scale assessment will reveal how extremes evolve across climatic gradients and land types, and we will explore the diversity of health outcomes and identify landscape configurations and socio-economic factors that are likely to lead to higher risks, and therefore potential mitigations that are resilient to future change. Community engagement will tease out the nuances of impacts and acceptability of environmental and community-based interventions. This will feed back to the national scale to inform on mitigation, via risk reduction tools for early warning, planning and policy. Our approach will provide a far more nuanced, informed and precise risk assessment than currently exists that will allow targeted interventions to be identified, providing risk reduction where most needed.

极端温度对生理和认知的影响是众所周知的，主要是对健康人群的影响，但对英国人口多样性的影响如何不同知之甚少;特别是那些有多种健康状况的人，包括神经系统，他们可能受到最大的影响，并且干预措施（例如绿色空间）针对性差或不存在。此外，我们没有工具来整合现有数据，以了解全国范围内以及必要的个人和家庭层面的温度健康风险，从而了解如何进行针对性干预。更广泛地说，在气候和人口变化的未来不确定的情况下，缺乏证据来指导政策，以应对健康不平等、城市规划和减缓/适应气候变化的双重挑战。与寒冷有关的死亡率随着总体变暖而下降，但仍远远超过与炎热有关的死亡率的增加，随着人口老龄化，与寒冷有关的疾病和死亡率的总体负担仍将很高。大多数关于健康结果的研究都侧重于过高的死亡率，并限于广泛的脆弱群体。然而，健康结果更加微妙，与身体和精神健康有关，并因神经和精神疾病等潜在疾病而加剧，暴露与特定环境的温度-湿度阈值有关。（包括长期成果），以及这与社会经济梯度和流动性驱动的温度危害可变性和室外/室内暴露之间的相互作用有何关系。因此，我们设想开发新的知识和工具，用于精确的风险评估和有针对性的干预措施，重点关注受影响不成比例的群体。通过这样做，我们将改变我们对与温度相关的健康结果不平等的驱动因素的理解，并提出利用这一点来指导关于提高水平的政策和实现气候目标的途径。我们将通过一个雄心勃勃但可行的、高度多学科的项目来实现我们的愿景，这是解决这一复杂问题所必需的。我们的目标是改变我们对温度对英格兰和威尔士弱势群体健康结果影响风险的理解，特别关注健康不平等，当前和未来的情景，并确定环境解决方案，直接解决总体资金需求目标。我们的方法是多尺度的，在空间和时间上都具有很高的粒度：a）将全国范围的风险评估与详细的城市案例研究联系起来，以了解街道/建筑物和弱势群体层面的风险;以及B）确定风险如何随着气候，人口统计，流动性和健康状况的未来变化而变化。国家规模的评估将揭示极端事件如何在气候梯度和土地类型之间演变，我们将探索健康结果的多样性，并确定可能导致更高风险的景观配置和社会经济因素，从而确定对未来变化具有弹性的潜在缓解措施。社区参与将梳理出环境和社区干预措施的影响和可接受性的细微差别。这将反馈到国家层面，通过预警、规划和政策方面的减少风险工具，为缓解提供信息。我们的方法将提供比目前更细致、更明智和更精确的风险评估，从而能够确定有针对性的干预措施，在最需要的地方降低风险。