Management of Physical Infrastructure in Cities to Protect Public Health from Climate Change Risks

Climate change poses a severe threat to public health. According to the Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2022, pg.17):"climate change and related extreme events will significantly increase ill health and premature deaths from the near- to long-term." Recent disasters such as the 2021 Western North America Heatwave and 2022 KwaZulu-Natal Floods show that climate-related hazards such as heatwaves and flooding can damage public health through multiple complex pathways and increase morbidity and mortality. The design of physical infrastructure systems can influence the extent to which climate-related hazards will damage public health on a city scale. However, there is no detailed evidence in existing research of how physical infrastructure systems in cities are managed to mitigate climate-related health risks. The research project will therefore investigate how cities manage physical infrastructure systems to protect public health in a changing climate and explore potential opportunities to improve existing risk management practices.

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