Phase 1: Vulnerability Assessments
The vulnerability assessments examine certain climate impacts and the corresponding health effects they have on communities. They identify which communities are most vulnerable, allowing HCPH to concentrate public health interventions (e.g. community outreach, cooling center placement and nature-based solutions) in areas that need them most. The current vulnerability assessments are focused around extreme heat, flooding and air quality. In the future the focus will expand to include other climate concerns and explore the interactions between multiple climate impacts.
Phase 2: Disease Burden Projections
Disease burden projections combine climate change projections and current climate-related disease data to produce estimates of disease burden under future climatic scenarios. With funding from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the CDC, HCPH will collaborate with Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) to begin the disease burden projections for extreme heat.
Please check back in summer 2021 for more updates.