The Hub has been informed by underpinning research carried out as part of multiple projects addressing different aspects of these issues. Projects focus on developing understanding and carrying out evaluations of the health and wellbeing impacts of adaptations around the world. Topics include; community-led healthy adaptations; migration and mobility in adaptations; and rural and urban resilience interventions. The types of climate impacts and adaptations addressed through the different research projects are wide-ranging and include interventions for flood (e.g. nature-based solutions; hard flood defences; relocation), heat (e.g. wildfire prevention; built environment cooling, advice and support), and cold (e.g. built environment interventions for warm homes, advice and support). You can find information about the different projects that have provided the underpinning research for this hub by clicking on the links.
The project aimed to develop evidence for sustainable adaptation that comprehensively incorporates the health and wellbeing consequences of adaptation interventions, focusing on flood risk adaptation. Flooding is treated as one of the major climate driven risks given that it causes high levels of mortality globally every year, and has multiple and interacting health dimensions and outcomes. Across the climate change adaptation literature, there is often a focus on singular aspects of how interventions shape wellbeing (e.g. nature connection, mental health). Far less is understood about the ways in which multiple dimensions of people’s lives are affected by adaptation processes with knock-on consequences for wellbeing outcomes. The project thus addresses a need for deeper understanding of the extent to which different areas of life important for health and wellbeing are affected by climate adaptations. To this end, the research developed, tested and validated new evaluative criteria in the context of real world interventions being implemented in Ireland, Ghana, and the UK.
SUCCESS seeks to generate new knowledge on the evaluation of adaptations that involve migration, mobility and immobility across South Asian countries. Researchers co-create, jointly with action partners, a set of evaluative tools to facilitate inclusive migration as adaptation that meets goals of human well-being and broader climate-resilient development. The research focuses on populations facing planned relocation, immobile and left-behind populations as well as urban migration destinations in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Research sites span mountain, coastal, dryland and urban contexts to represent all major dimensions of the mobility spectrum.
The overall objective of CLAPs is to co-create interventions and metrics that enable successful adaptation to climate change. CLAPs examines existing local climate change adaptation action in Indian cities and rapidly changing rural areas. The project analyses these actions against current development priorities to help evaluate adaptation pathways that can meet the goals of climate-resilient, migrant-friendly development. The project creates a set of generalised lessons and evaluative metrics with action partners to provide guidelines and improve policies on climate adaptation based on experiences in India.
The project works collaboratively with partners to develop understanding of health and wellbeing impacts of community-led action addressing weather extremes of flood, heat and cold. In the Phase 1, the team looked at the different forms of community-led responses to extreme weather in the UK and mapped their implications for health and wellbeing. They built relationships and understanding of the ongoing work being undertaken by communities in response to flood, heat, and cold. They also looked at possibilities for future interventions such as through developing action plans, delivering training, or making changes to the local environment that reduce the negative effects of extreme weather. For Phase 2 of the project, the team is working closely with community partners to develop in-depth evaluations of the actions they are taking. The evaluations provide knowledge of the health and wellbeing impacts of community-led actions for floods, heat, or cold weather from the perspectives of users and wider community members that may benefit.
Find definitions for terms that are frequently used in the Healthy Adaptations Hub.
| Terminology | Definition |
|---|---|
| Affect | People’s emotional evaluation of experiences of everyday life. Affective responses to flood interventions are important for understanding the social consequences of adaptations and how these are distributed. Affective responses are also important for galvanising support for adaptation policies because of the way people can influence how they interpret social situations and their intended and actual behaviours. |
| Affective wellbeing | People’s emotional evaluation of everyday life experiences in terms of their preferences versus reality. |
| Place making | [Definition to come] |
The Healthy Adaptations Hub showcases research from a range of projects that have been undertaken by social scientists, health economists, demographers, epidemiologists, and hydrologists across multiple universities (see Underpinning Research for details on who’s been involved).
The Hub showcases a series of resources to support sustainable, health-focused climate risk adaptation, addressing mortality risk and other multi-faceted health impacts.
The Hub has been informed by underpinning research carried out as part of multiple projects addressing different aspects of these issues.
Get in touch with the Healthy Adaptations Team at:
Catherine Butler (University of Exeter) c.butler@exeter.ac.uk | Neil Adger (University of Exeter) n.adger@exeter.ac.uk | Stacey Heath (Open University) stacey.heath@open.ac.uk