Evaluating Health Impacts of Climate Adaptation Strategies (360G-Wellcome-216014_Z_19_Z)

Focus Area 3: Adaptation to climate change This research will develop a new evaluation tool for sustainable adaptation that will comprehensively incorporate direct and indirect health effects of adaptation interventions. It will explicitly focus on the wider effects of adaptation for the health and socio-economic wellbeing of the most vulnerable populations. The research will integrate insights from climate and hydrological sciences, social sciences, and health and economic sciences of disease burden and well-being. The evaluation tool will be developed through cross-disciplinary interaction on concepts and methods, and then calibrated through empirical study of existing adaptations, focused on flooding. Flood risk is a prevalent climate impact globally and diverse adaptations currently being implemented globally. New empirical insights into flood adaptation will be generated focussing on three adaptation interventions for: flood infrastructure, planned relocation, and catchment-based planning across Ghana, Ireland, and UK. The project will undertake proof-of-concept evaluations for these interventions to develop the tool, generating specific lessons on flood adaptation and wider lessons on climate change adaptations more broadly. The research will engage with UK stakeholders and other national and international agencies to ensure the tool, evidence and planned user interface will be policy-relevant for adaptation planning at the global scale.