2018 Chapters (Layout Features)

Connecting climate information with health outcomes

Thomson, Madeleine C.; Metcalf, Jessica; Mason, Simon J.

In this chapter we consider a range of factors that need to be taken into account when seeking to use climate information to improve health decision-making. Identifying causal mechanisms that link climate drivers with specific health issues is an important starting point for policy-makers. Matching decision time-horizons to climate information in a way that takes account of scale issues, uncertainties in the underlying data and modelling approaches as well as institutional barriers to knowledge and data sharing is also critical. And of course, all of this is dependent on a solid understanding of the climate information (including its limitations) that is available to health decision-makers. A researcher may be satisfied with a simple times-series of climate data from an authoritative source; a decision-maker needs to know that the climate information is robust, available for routine use and scalable (i.e., can be used over the entire region of interest).