There is a need to evaluate and quantify the cost and benefits of different heat interventions in order to inform decision making.
This masterclass reviews the current methods for assessing health-related costs from morbidity and mortality linked to extreme heat exposures and the health and economic benefits associated with common heat adaptation interventions, such as: housing interventions, air conditioning, heat early warning systems, community cooling centers, and municipal heat action plans. The advantages and limitations of these methods is addressed.
Learning Objectives
- To understand how to assess healthcare costs associated with extreme heat exposures
- To use case studies to explore opportunities and limitations association with different estimation approaches
- To describe different types and sources of data, metrics, and tools for assessing and comparing costs and benefits of candidate heat-health adaptation interventions
- To describe practical details of the challenges in assessing costs and benefits associated with each approach
Lessons
Lesson 1: Economic valuation of heat-health impacts and interventions
Lesson 2: Economic valuation of heat-health impacts and interventions
Tutors
Tutors
Shubayu Saha
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Shubayu Saha is a health scientist with the Climate and Health program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. He has a broad training in Economics, Epidemiology and Public Policy, and wide-ranging skills in statistical and spatial analysis of big data. Part of his research involves spatiotemporally linking environmental exposures (like heat, precipitation, pollen) with health outcomes to assess the health burden associated with these exposures. He has built partnerships with national (NOAA, IITM in India) and international (WMO) meteorological institutions to produce climate services that inform decision-making in public health preparedness and response. Shubayu has authored multiple chapters on public health impacts for the last three United States National Climate Assessments. Before joining CDC, he worked on understanding human development and sustainable interaction with the environment. For his Ph.D. in Environmental Economics, he explored how land use change linked to deforestation and iron ore mining impacted wellbeing of communities in India and Brazil. This work was supported through grants from the National Science Foundation and the World Bank.
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Vijay Limaye
Natural Resources Defense Council
Vijay Limaye is a climate and health scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is interested in addressing international environmental health challenges—quantifying, communicating, and mitigating the risks associated with climate change—with a focus on the public health burden of air pollution and extreme heat events. Dr. Limaye is a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist. He speaks Spanish and Hindi and has conducted interdisciplinary research quantifying the health impacts of climate change-triggered air pollution and heat waves for populations in the U.S. and India. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in environmental epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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Roop Singh
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Roop Singh is the Climate Risk Adviser at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and provides technical support to disaster managers and adaptation practitioners to access, interpret and use climate risk information for decision-making. Roop supports the Climate Centre’s urban portfolio with a focus on heat risk, including co-authoring the Climate Centre's Heatwave Guide for Cities and a companion guide for CSOs and leading engagement on advancing heat reserach and action planning. She is also the host of the 'Can't Take the Heat' podcast on how people can adapt to climate issues like more frequent and intense heatwaves.
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