Your Health and a Changing Climate Newsletter, Volume 5, December 2006

Policy Initiatives

Adapting to the Health Impacts of Climate Change - Tools for Assessing Public Health Risk

Using GIS to Assess Public Health Risk Due to Extremely High Temperatures

Researchers at Ouranos in Montreal and at the Swiss Federal Research Institute have assessed the potential impact of high temperature events on people living in southern Quebec. They integrated climate variables and socio-economic parameters via a geographic information system (GIS) tool to produce maps of estimated present and future public health risk. A comparison of risk maps for present and future conditions showed that the number of locations where populations will be at threat due to high temperature events will dramatically increase in Quebec over the next few decades. This study gives preliminary input to the Quebec public health decision-makers who intend to develop a spatially explicit on-line analytical processing tool using Web-GIS technology to identify areas vulnerable to climate change.

>>> For more information on this study, contact vescovi.luc@ouranos.ca

Public Health Agency of Canada - GIS Services Available

The GIS Infrastructure team is housed within the Public Health Agency's Office of Public Health Practice and provides GIS services tailored to the Canadian public health community. This group is available to support the work of public health professionals and researchers in the public sector by providing a variety of data, tools, training and services to meet GIS needs at NO cost. Their mandate and licencing agreement limitations do not permit them to offer these tools and data to the private sector.

At a basic level, the GIS Infrastructure team offers a web mapping tool called the "Public Health Map Generator" which is tailored to public health professionals with little or no GIS experience. They also provide spatial data to those users with GIS software who wish to do mapping on their own. In addition they provide mapping services for those users without GIS software and whose mapping projects are more advanced than what the Public Health Map Generator can offer.

>>> For more information on this service, visit  www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/php-psp/gis_e.html or contact publichealthpractice@phac-aspc.gc.ca or phone toll free 1-877-430-9995

Climate Change, Air Quality, and Human Health Mapping Tool

The New Brunswick Lung Association has launched a web mapping portal  www.gishealthportal.ca/nbla/ which was created to provide health authorities and the public alike with the tools to understand the links between climate change, air quality, and human health in the Province of New Brunswick.

The Lung Association is currently working on a project focussed on pandemic influenza, using the mapping technology to support decision-makers and to coordinate interventions for mitigating the impacts of a pandemic. This project, funded by GeoConnections, involves several industry, academic, health and safety partners. Culminating in a pandemic exercise in March 2007, the project will demonstrate how mapping technology can assist decision-makers to deal with emerging health threats quickly and effectively.

Geographical Information Systems are being used to protect human health from a variety of diseases such as West Nile Virus, Dengue Fever, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Influenza.

>>> For more information, visit  http://www.nb.lung.ca/html/Programs/Lung/mapping.htm

Adaptation Tools - The Next Step for Communities

Local communities have a predominant role to play in adapting to climate change. Decision-makers will require new tools to adapt knowledge of climate change impacts to their particular situation, evaluate best practices and their appropriateness for their community, and develop targeted policies and procedures to ensure the health, safety and security of citizens.

Several tools are already under development both in developing and developed countries. The applicability of these tools to address health risks is not well understood in most cases. Some may be much more adaptable than others. Five are described briefly below.

CRISTAL

Community-based Risk Screening Tool -Adaptation and Livelihoods (CRISTAL) is being developed for use primarily in developing countries by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Stockholm Environment Institute - Boston Center and Intercooperation. It helps them to understand the impacts of climate change on livelihoods and to improve the natural resources, physical and social capital, and human resources necessary to deal with them. CRISTAL was developed to get a thorough understanding of the links between livelihoods and climate change impacts and thereby help communities and project managers to maximise opportunities to adapt to climate change. Field testing of CRISTAL in Mali, Tanzania, and sites in Central America will lead to revisions of the tool before making it widely available.

>>> For further information, visit  http://www.iucn.org/climate

Danish Climate and Development Action Programme

This Programme provides tools for climate change screening and guidance for actions in relation to Danish development cooperation. The main target group for this Programme is the staff working with development cooperation in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at Danish Embassies in partner countries, and at Danish missions and embassies accredited to multilateral organisations. It is also aimed at stakeholders in partner countries - governmental institutions at both national and local levels, non governmental organizations, and civil society, the private sector, and academic and research communities. Integral to this Programme is climate proofing development efforts i.e. taking actions to ensure that development efforts are protected from negative impacts of climate change, climate variability, and extreme weather events and to ensure that climate-friendly development strategies are pursued to delay and reduce damages caused by climate change. The Programme recommends broad steps under four key objectives - raising policy profile, adaptation, mitigation, and capacity development - which are consistent with the principles of the EU Action plan on Climate Change in the Context of Development Cooperation.

>>> For more information, visit  www.amg.um.dk

United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP)

UKCIP provides a range of tools and data to help with climate change risk assessments and developing adaptation strategies. They are developing an over-arching Adaptation Wizard which is designed to help users move through the process from a simple understanding of climate change to integration of climate change into decision-making. In support of this process UKCIP offers scenarios of climate change for the United Kingdom, socioeconomic scenarios, a framework for making decisions in the face of climate risk and uncertainty, and a methodology for costing the impacts of climate change. They are also putting together a database of climate change adaptation case studies, which will be available soon.

>>> For more information visit:  http://www.ukcip.org.uk/resources/tools/

ADAPT

The World Bank has developed a prototype of an assessment and design tool - ADAPT - that provides a simple means of assessing development projects for potential sensitivities to climate change. The tool is based on expert assessment of the threats and opportunities arising from climate variability and change. It facilitates a compilation of the climate trends and projections at the project site; identifies components of the project that might be subject to climate risk; explains the nature of the risk; suggests options for reducing the risk and provides documents and contacts to help project designers followup on any identified risks. The tool is intended for project team members, both within the World Bank and within client countries, who do not have specialized knowledge of climate change issues. A more comprehensive version is under construction but the knowledge bases within the tool are open ended and can be extended for particular regions or for new issues. The initial version has a focus on agriculture, water and rural infrastructure issues.

>>> For more information, contact inoble@worldbank.org

Adapting to Climate Change: An Introduction for Canadian Municipalities

This publication intends to help municipalities and communities develop a better understanding of adaptation. It provides a starting point for municipalities and communities that have not yet formally considered adaptation in their planning processes. For municipalities and communities already engaged in developing adaptation mechanisms, it can be used to enhance understanding of adaptation in decision making.

>>> For more information visit:  http://www.c-ciarn.ca/index_e.asp?CaId=13&PgId=154

Health projects under the Government of Quebec Action Plan

The various studies conducted in Quebec and Canada contributed greatly to determination of the health action priorities in the plan announced June 21, 2006, by the Government of Quebec for the 2006-2012 period. That plan, Quebec and Climate Change: A Challenge for the Future. 2006-2012 Action Plan, includes various health-specific measures:

1. Setting up an alert and monitoring system for intense heat and for monitoring, in real time, related health problems in all regions of Quebec likely to be affected, mainly in urban areas.
   
   
2. Supporting health network building managers in analysis of the ventilation/air conditioning/dehumidification needs of care institutions, taking into account climate change.
   
   
3. Improving systems for monitoring infectious disease to allow for quickly detecting pathogens and diseases whose development is accelerated by climate change.
   
   
4. Developing training, to be offered to workers in the public health, clinical services and civil protection sectors, on diseases and emerging health problems related to climate change and on their treatment.
   
   
5. Introducing a short- and long-term epidemiological monitoring system for physical and psychosocial health problems related to extreme climate events.

Finally, the government also announced financial support for the creation of cool areas (tree planting, creation of parks, installation of municipal pools, etc.) in urban areas and cooling for strategic infrastructures (hospitals, homes for the elderly, schools, etc.) to mitigate the impact of summer heat waves on the population. The health program of Ouranos and the INSPQ will support these various interventions aimed at better adaptation to climate change. Various health education programs should also be developed in parallel with these projects. The final budget for the health adaptations component is still being prepared, but will total several million dollars.

A total budget of $1.2 billion is planned for the six years of this plan, $328 million of which remains to be confirmed by the federal government. A number of measures aimed at greenhouse gas reduction (public transit, technologies, agriculture, etc.) are at the heart of the plan.

Government of Quebec (2006). Quebec and Climate Change: A Challenge for the Future. 2006-2012 Action Plan. On-line June 19, 2006  http://www.mddep.gouv.qc.ca/changements/plan_action/2006-2012_en.pdf