251106 Climate vulnerability at the state & national scale: Can we learn from the locals?

Monday, October 31, 2011: 3:00 PM

Daniella Hirschfeld , Program Officer - Climate Adaptation, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability USA, Boston, MA
     
While there have been more and more local-scale climate-vulnerability assessments conducted in recent years, not all have focused on community health. Some have dealt with natural resource vulnerability, and others with infrastructure damages. There have been challenges for local governments seeking to evaluate their vulnerability to climate change, and find adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability. Staff from ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability will discuss their organization's development of a flexible vulnerability assessment guidance tool being piloted nationally for use by hundreds of participating cities, and which may yield insights for the upcoming US National Climate Assessment.” Additionally staff will present how this tool has recently been tested to a climate change health vulnerability assessment at the local level.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
1) Identify three salient features of the municipal-level vulnerability assessments being used by ICLEI’s member cities that apply to heat-health vulnerability. 2) List three of the US cities participating in ICLEI’s climate change initiatives and their health related work.

Keywords: Climate Change, Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked for over three years in several roles as an outside assist to local government officials. In this role I have provided technical expertise in planning for and adapting to climate change. For two years I focused on working with coastal communities dealing with concerns over sea level rise. During the past year I have developed a vulnerability assessment tool used nationally by local governments and have helped to do local level vulnerability assessments. I am currently working on a public health vulnerability assessment that will be a part of my presentation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Investigating climate-health vulnerability
See more of: Environment