Creating a warning system to counter the growing health risks caused by heat waves, air pollution, fires and pollen. This is the goal of the €5.6 million EU healthRiskADAPT project, involving a consortium of 25 institutions from 12 countries, including for Italy ENEA, CNR, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, UCCRN and the Municipality of Naples. The project will develop “tailor-made” digital tools to support policy makers, local administrations, health authorities and citizens in monitoring and assessing environmental and health risks and in planning effective adaptation strategies to protect public health. The project will also aim to strengthen the European health system’s capacity to respond to the challenges posed by climate change.
‘At ENEA, we will be involved in the provision of indicators for the four risks considered – heat waves, air pollution, fires and pollen – and in the assessment of the associated health factors,’ explains ENEA’s contact person for the project, Ilaria D’Elia, a researcher in the Models and Measurements for Air Quality and Climate Observation Laboratory. ‘In addition,’ she continues, “we will be involved in the experimentation in four pilot cities (Naples, Oslo, Bern and Lyon), representative of different geographic and climatic areas, and in the dissemination of the results to make them available to all stakeholders.
Over the next four years, the consortium, coordinated by the Norwegian institute NILU, will set up a full-fledged European climate change-related health risk assessment system that will monitor and quantify the vulnerability of populations on a spatial, health and environmental basis through the collection, processing and sharing of accurate and detailed information. ‘Currently available data on climate, health and socio-economic factors are fragmented and insufficient to support effective planning of adaptation measures,’ D’Elia points out.
The platform will integrate unique data, maps and indicators that will help end-users identify effective and sustainable intervention priorities and adaptation options based on context and cost-effectiveness. These include: creation of shaded areas; activation of health alerts in case of heat waves; urban interventions; social measures. The innovative platform will also make it possible to monitor the effectiveness of the adopted solutions over time, thanks to close cooperation with institutions, technicians and citizens. “Faced with the challenges posed by the climate crisis, current intervention measures are proving to be insufficient. With this in mind, this project will be a pioneer in Europe for adaptation strategies, thanks to the integration of technical, naturalistic and social solutions,’ the researcher emphasises.
According to recent estimates, deaths in Europe caused by temperature variations could increase by 50% in the period 2015-2099 (worst case scenario) and reach 2.3 million by the end of the century with the Mediterranean area among the most vulnerable. The healthRiskADAPT project will contribute to the implementation of the Mission for Climate Change Adaptation – launched under the Horizon Europe research programme – which aims to involve at least 150 European regions in testing effective solutions to strengthen local resilience to climate change and to implement at least 75 large-scale demonstration projects showing how to implement deep and systemic transformations to tackle the climate crisis.
