Identification of potential conflicts and synergies of climate adaptation and mitigation measures on health and well-being using an urban systems approach

Cities face multiple challenges due to climate change. The increase in extreme events, such as heat waves, negatively impacts the health and well-being of urban populations. It is therefore crucial to adapt cities to changing environmental conditions to protect the health of different population groups. For example, many cities use urban greening to reduce heat stress as part of local heat health action plans. At the same time, cities are trying to reduce their carbon emissions through the implementation of climate mitigation measures, which range from changing mobility behaviors (e.g. switch from cars to active travel modes) to changes in buildings (e.g. improving insulation). Both types of climate action can have health co-benefits, but also conflicts. Sustainable urban planning should aim to reduce these conflicts and increase the benefits to health but often lack tools and scientific evidence to support decisions in practice.  

A systems perspective can support a better understanding of the complex interactions between climate change, urban health and climate action. Within CoSynHealth, we extended the concept of health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth) to include processes related to climate change, climate adaptation, and climate mitigation as well as socio-demographic changes (e.g. aging of the population). Using heat-related impacts on health and well-being as an example, the extended approach can now support the identification of interactions and processes in cities that potentially lead to health co-benefits and trade-offs between the two types of climate action. It also provides guidance for an integrated modelling approach, which employs agent-based modelling and high-resolution urban climate modelling to quantify the co-benefits and trade-offs. This is an important step towards supporting city planners and health officials in developing carbon-neutral and healthy cities as well as to support the development of climate services.