A roadmap for innovative and equity-informed climate action

Over the past year, the Waterloo Climate Institute has collaborated closely with Southwestern Public Health (SWPH), which serves the regions of Oxford County, Elgin County and the City of St. Thomas, to identify critical climate-related health risks in the region. Using the latest climate change projections and focusing on the most vulnerable populations, the resulting report lays out recommendations to enhance preparedness and resilience in tackling these challenges in the region. 

Through this collaboration, SWPH has been able to draw on the expertise of climate and health specialists at the University of Waterloo to develop a comprehensive assessment of how climate change is affecting the health of the community’s most vulnerable groups. Faculty experts, graduate students and the institute’s technical staff collaborated with both internal and external advisory groups, using interactive validation sessions to pinpoint the most critical risks facing Southwestern Ontario. 

The climate-related health risks identified in the assessment include extreme weather, poor air quality, ultraviolet radiation and vector-borne disease risks, such as Lyme disease from ticks. The report also highlights factors that contribute to elevated health risks, including preexisting health conditions, increased exposure from outdoor occupations, language barriers, age or structural barriers. 

“Climate change is very much seen as an environmental issue or an economic issue, but climate change has serious impacts on human health,” shares Michelle Alvey, health promoter for environmental health at SWPH. 

The health unit explored how various groups of people, including outdoor workers, people with chronic illnesses and marginalized communities, experience climate events. The study explored the impact of climate change events such as extreme heat days, fewer frost days, poor air quality from forest fire smoke and vector-borne diseases from the growing boundaries for ticks that carry Lyme disease. The assessment also focused on what actions could support populations made vulnerable by these changes in our climate.  

“Public health works with community agencies and partners to ensure our communities are set up and designed to protect those populations who are going to be most vulnerable to these impacts,” Alvey says. 

The recommendations aim to strengthen community resilience and support individual adaptation strategies, such as developing a co-produced risk reduction and prevention strategy for extreme weather, like heatwaves, with clear actions to protect vulnerable populations. Building strong relationships to implement effective action plans is key, as is fostering collaborations across municipal, regional, provincial and federal levels to align advancing climate adaptation efforts, particularly in technology sharing and policy alignment.  

Through the report, this collaboration has brought often-overlooked psychosocial impacts of climate change, such as anxiety and PTSD, especially among vulnerable groups, to the forefront of public health planning. 

“It is collaborations like the one with Southwestern Public Health, that increase our collective capacity to apply cutting-edge knowledge to practical, on-the-ground solutions that build resilience in communities,” shares, Dr. Juan-Moreno-Cruz, interim executive director of the Climate Institute and professor in the Faculty of Environment and Canada Research Chair in Energy Transitions. 

Overall, the climate vulnerability assessment serves as a vital resource for understanding and mitigating the health risks posed by climate change in Southwestern Ontario. It also addresses the diverse needs of the community, especially those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The report's recommendations provide a clear path forward for enhancing resilience and promoting equity in the face of a changing climate. 

With the success of the collaboration on the vulnerability assessment, the Climate Institute is continuing to support the SWPH unit through a pilot project to advance the region’s extreme heat resilience strategy.

SWPH filmed "Vital Perspectives" featuring Dr. Susan Elliott, professor in the Faculty of Environment at Waterloo, who was lead researcher for the vulnerability assessment with the Climate Institute.  

For more information on the Vulnerability Assessment please visit SWPH Vulnerability Assessment.  

Find out more about the Waterloo Climate Institute.