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Adapting to Extreme Heat Events: Guidelines for Assessing Health Vulnerability

Keywords / Description:

A major component of public health efforts to protect people from extreme heat events centers on assessments of individual and community level vulnerability. Adapting to Extreme Heat Events: Guidelines for Assessing Health Vulnerability provides an overview of the vulnerability assessment methodology that has been developed by Health Canada, with support from a range of partners active in efforts to prepare people for climate change. In developing this guidance, leading experts and stakeholders from local communities helped to identify and articulate the risks to the health of Canadians from extreme heat and the range of viable adaptation options. The assessment steps and methods set out in this document were tested through the completion of four extreme heat and health vulnerability assessments in partnering pilot communities - Winnipeg, Manitoba; the town of Melita in the Assiniboine Regional Health Authority, Manitoba; Windsor, Ontario; and Fredericton, New Brunswick. Lessons learned, as well as best practices for investigating risks and necessary adaptation actions, are provided here to help public health and emergency management officials better protect the health of Canadians from extreme heat events.This document is structured to provide practical guidance for conducting extreme heat and health vulnerability assessments as a means to inform actions that can be taken to prepare communities for an increase in the number, intensity, and duration of extreme heat events.

Toolkit:

Climate Change Toolkit

Keyword Area:

Adaptation, Assessment, Climate, Environmental Health, Natural Disaster, Vulnerable Populations

Jurisdiction:

Institutional Author:

Health Canada

Submitted:

04/25/2012

Modified:

04/30/2012

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