Drexel Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center (Drexel CCUH)

SUMMARY– OVERALL The central theme of the Drexel Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center (CCUH) is the creation and dissemination/translation of evidence that will support urban policies to address the health and equity impacts of climate change in cities. Urban areas are key contributors to climate change and are home to large

inequities, but also present many opportunities for action. Urbanization is occurring more rapidly in lower-and middle-income countries, and climate change is spurring migration across countries. Research on the health impacts of climate change must span urban communities across countries, yet little work has focused on intra-

urban inequities or conducted comparative analyses of these inequities across heterogeneous cities. Based on our established, productive collaboration across 13 institutions in the US and Latin America, we aim to build institutional capacity at Drexel and at three partner sites included in this formative Center (University of

California Berkeley, University of São Paulo in Brazil, and INCAP in Guatemala) to support action-oriented research on the impacts of climate change on population health and health inequities in diverse cities across the Americas. Specifically, we will leverage existing strengths at Drexel in urban health and health equity, our

research network on urban health in Latin America (the Salud Urbana en America Latina or SALURBAL study) and our work with US partners including US Big Cities Health Coalition. This robust, existing infrastructure will enable us to expand our urban health and health equity work to encompass the generation of solutions-

oriented evidence on the impacts of climate change on health in cities and translate that evidence into actions in partnership with communities and policymakers. Our aims are: (1) to create an organizational structure that promotes collaborative and inclusive transdisciplinary and policy-relevant research on climate change and

health across cities of the Americas (Administrative Core); (2) to support capacity-strengthening for research on climate change health impacts in urban settings through structured training activities, funding pilot grants and research methods translation and support (Research Capacity Building Core); (2) to demonstrate the

informativeness and policy-relevance of multi-country research on climate change and health equity through a research project on intra-urban inequities engaging researchers from the US and Latin America (Research Project); and (4) to increase capacity for policy translation and policy impact through the engagement of policy

makers and impacted urban communities in order to inform future research questions, as well as dissemination and translation efforts to maximize impact (Community Engagement Core.) Through these aims we will support the creation of the infrastructure, research and engagement capacity, and partnerships needed to expand

policy relevant research on the impacts of climate change on health and health equity in urban areas. Our ultimate goal is to become a center of excellence on climate change and urban health with a strong equity focus, global reach and meaningful engagement of policy makers and communities to maximize policy impact.