The impact of our world's changing climate will go far beyond the weather. Hotter summers, more intense storms, and poorer air quality will have impacts on human health, especially on already vulnerable populations.
A new research center at the University of Illinois at Chicago will bring together experts from public health, medicine, engineering, urban planning and biological sciences to measure these health impacts and test nature-based interventions such as green infrastructure to reduce the consequences of climate change on humans.
The Center for Climate and Health Justice has been selected by the National Institutes of Health to participate in its Climate Change and Health Initiative.
UIC will receive $4 million over three years to establish research and community engagement activities.
Christine Malecki, who will direct the center, said the multidisciplinary focus reflects the complexity of the challenge. Vulnerable neighborhoods may face multiple cumulative impacts from climate change, including flooding, air pollution, and heat.
“Climate change is one of the biggest issues facing public health today, and we need to work across borders so we can track and monitor real impacts on human health,” said Maleki, professor and director of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at UCLA. UIC School of Public Health.
The center will build on several existing UIC programs, including the Children's Environmental Health Initiative led by Chancellor Mary Lynn Miranda and the Community Climate and Urban Science Research Project, a partnership with Argonne National Laboratory and several Midwestern universities. The center will also leverage the resources and ongoing work of the Chicago Center for Health and the Environment, which is based at UIC and the University of Chicago.
It will also work to strengthen government and nonprofit partnerships — including with the Chicago Department of Public Health and Morton Arboretum — and work with communities prepared to address the impacts of climate change at the neighborhood level. Research resulting from the collaboration will guide the design and implementation of community-based interventions that reduce health disparities.
“What makes the center unique is its focus on finding solutions and working with community partners,” Malecki said. “We have a lot of communities across Chicago that see environmental justice issues as a problem, but they are looking for the tools, data and knowledge to take that information and turn it into action.”
Integrating data to determine climate impacts on health
Today, we collect more data than ever about our climate, our cities, and our health. Climatologists use outdoor sensors to monitor weather and air quality throughout Chicago, urban researchers measure how infrastructure like freeways affects heat and flood risk, and hospitals collect data on patients. Connecting this data can provide insights into how climate impacts health in communities across the city.
Indeed, UIC research in Chicago found significant differences in air temperature between the high- and low-income sides of the same neighborhood. But to assess whether exposure to higher neighborhood temperatures is associated with negative health outcomes, researchers need to link temperature data to health records.
“Urban systems are complex, and public health is complex. This center will make that complexity solvable,” said Miquel González Miller, a professor of biological sciences at UCI and deputy director of the center. “The center will serve as a good think tank to see how these disparate ways of bringing together Data, information and different ways of knowing can help us reach more effective solutions.”
The new center will create a center for geospatial data and analytics, led by Sanjeeb Basu of the USCI School of Public Health and Melissa Pfeiffer of the Children's Environmental Health Initiative, which will use USCI's new research data infrastructure.
Researchers from several fields will work together to create health impact assessments that combine environmental, climate and social factors. Using spatial data will allow scientists to estimate the extent to which people living in different areas of Chicago are exposed to these impacts over the course of their lives.
“We have the ability to organize that data and correlate it across space and time to identify and address these drivers of disparity,” Pfeiffer said.
In addition to measuring climate impacts on health, the center will also study actions outside health care — in fields such as engineering, urban planning and forestry — that could reduce those impacts. Research will focus on green infrastructure, such as rooftop gardens, tree plantings, and biolands, all of which can enhance climate change resilience and mental health while reducing disease risks.
Honghyuk Kim, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at CIS, will lead a project on the benefits of green infrastructure and where new programs will have the greatest impact. Kim will also work with researchers from UIC's Department of Biological Sciences and forestry experts from Morton Arboretum to identify the best plant species to use in green infrastructure.
“We know that green space is good, and that it can reduce urban heat island effects,” Kim said. “The next question then is: Where should we increase green space? We have limited resources, so we need to identify priority areas.
The foundation of community partnerships and policy expertise
As science advances, the center will turn these discoveries into action by working with communities and policy makers.
The center's community engagement core, led by Yameli Molina in partnership with the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, will catalyze community-academic shared learning opportunities on climate change adaptation in vulnerable communities. A new Institute for Climate Health will support ongoing community-academic partnerships and build capacity for climate and health action across Chicago.
“Our approach recognizes and capitalizes on the inherent assets of communities that have traditionally been marginalized,” said Molina, associate director of community outreach and engagement at the University of Illinois Cancer Center. “Our efforts focus on moving beyond traditional scientific narratives, which treat communities as passive recipients. This paradigm shift focuses our work on understanding and enhancing community strength and resilience as the most important resources for addressing climate change and its health impacts, with support from academic partners.”
Urban planning and public policy provide additional tools to protect people from climate change. Researchers at the center will study climate change mitigation plans in cities across the country to evaluate how these approaches affect health.
These ideas can help cities change zoning or urban development to remove common obstacles to green infrastructure, said Jamie Al-Shriki, senior associate dean and professor of health policy and management at the UCIS School of Public Health.
“Unless you review your laws or allow for exceptions, it's going to be really difficult to make some of these changes,” Al-Shariki said. “Data is the best guide to show policymakers the impact some of these changes can have.”
The center's activities include workshops and training opportunities for early-career faculty and students, which will provide the next generation of climate scientists with the interdisciplinary skills, such as data literacy, geospatial analysis, and biostatistics, to continue this work.
“The fact that we have such a diverse student body as well as such strong community partnerships makes UCLA the best place to make this happen,” Malecki said.
