Challenge: Public health surveillance is fundamental to effective public health practice. Public health surveillance systems have long been widely implemented for infectious diseases, vital statistics and many other important public health topics. While public health surveillance has not typically been applied with a climate and health lens, there is a growing need for monitoring the effects of climate change and potential impacts on health outcomes, especially at the local level. In some cases, indicators for climate and health surveillance have been developed at the federal and state levels, though these are not always appropriate for informing local public health actions. Local health departments, and their communities, require local indicators for climate and health surveillance to effectively prepare for and adapt to climate change.
Solution/Results:
With support from NACCHO’s Demonstration Sites in Climate and Health program, Franklin County Public Health developed a set of local indicators for climate and health surveillance and a website for monitoring these indicators and providing climate change information.
First, we developed an initial set of climate-related indicators (e.g., unusually hot days and nights, extreme precipitation events, degree days) and health-related indicators (e.g., heat-related illnesses, vector-borne diseases, asthma and other allergic conditions) that we could measure and track at the county-level.
We began with a broad list of indicators that aligned with the climate change impacts expected in our jurisdiction, then worked to identify appropriate data sources, generate historical baseline measures and develop descriptions to link each indicator back to local climate change effects. Through this process, we revised our initial indicators and identified new ones as additional data sources became available. We also worked with the State Climate Office of Ohio to further develop the climate-related indicators.
Finally, we developed interactive dashboards to present current and historical measures of each indicator. We then developed a climate and health webpage to present these dashboards along with local climate change information on potential impacts and adaptation strategies. These dashboards will be updated at least once a year as new data becomes available.
Lessons Learned:
- Review any similar projects by other local, state, or federal agencies and adapt what you can to your jurisdiction.
- Partner with other local organizations in your jurisdiction that already work in climate and health.
- Begin by identifying a broad set of indicators you would like to track, then narrow your focus to those you can track now.
- Fully developing the indicator list may take several iterations of this process.
Contact Information
Alexander Evans, MBA, MPH, MGIS
[email protected]
Phone Number: (380) 799-2935
Franklin County Public Health, Ohio
