Urban Climate-Health Action: A New Approach to Protecting Health in the Era of Climate Change

To minimize the health effects of heatwaves in Dhaka, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society engaged a multisectoral team to develop an Early Action Protocol. Using heat forecasting and vulnerability data, responders managed to alert 1 million at-risk people and deploy live-saving resources including water and umbrellas. If scaled to 57 countries, this system could save almost 100,000 lives yearly.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Health Surveillance Superintendence brought together a multidisciplinary team to manage dengue outbreaks. This team, consisting of the Operations and Resilience Center and other local partners, predicted a spike two months earlier than forecasted by traditional epidemiological models, leading to timely response and the lowest death rate over the last four epidemics.

Recognizing the increased risk of dengue in Bangalore, India, the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) built a platform for dengue data collection. Layering this with weather, population and land use data, the Dengue Platform provides risk forecasts up to 4-weeks in advance, allowing practitioners to coordinate mitigation activities and protect vulnerable populations.

In Lusaka, Zambia, the El Niño climate phenomenon has led to acute water insecurity, increasing local cholera incidence. A Risk Communication and Community Engagement response led by the Collective Service, has allowed practitioners to better understand community needs and concerns, and resultantly to improve the uptake of vaccines and oral rehydration salts, resulting in fewer community deaths.

While Uganda is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries globally, most sectors including health have historically not accounted account for this risk. Addressing this, the Ugandan Ministry of Health published a Health National Adaptation Plan and Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment in August 2024. Identifying key climate risks to health, these documents are set to guide national policy.

Despite robust meteorological data, poor cross-talk between climate and health services has hindered the effective management of heatwaves in Senegal. Recognizing this, ANACIM, the meteorological service, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Ministry of Health, produced a Heatwave Early Warning Bulletin to inform targeted responses at national and local levels.

Recognizing issues in the management of the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic, Nigeria developed SORMAS, an open-source platform for real-time data sharing and task management. When used over the Covid-19, pandemic, demand for SORMAS increased globally. Now, with the growth of climate-related infectious diseases, SORMAS is integrating a critical One Health approach to environmental surveillance.