Why this work is important
Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to our built environment. The frequency and magnitude of extreme heat events will increase with catastrophic impacts for public health, communities and the economy. The distribution of climate-related disadvantage varies geographically, as a function of the interplay of public health policy, sociodemographic and environmental factors. The most severely affected are elderly, socially isolated individuals, and people suffering from cardiovascular and/or respiratory diseases, depression or low mobility. Built environment factors also modify heat vulnerability appreciably, with highly glazed, south/west oriented, top-floor dwellings located within Urban Heat Islands at highest risk. Thus, we believe that climate proofing of residential environments occupied by vulnerable people and, in particular, care homes is an urgent need.
Who we are
Dr Anna Mavrogianni (UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering) is an expert in built environment climate change adaptation, with a focus on heat vulnerability at the building and urban scale. She regularly advises Government Departments and Local Authorities on ways to improve the climate resilience of urban environments. She will lead the project’s building performance meta-analysis component.
Dr Adam Dennett (UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) is an expert in quantitative human geography. His recent work has developed techniques to generate artificial micro-level longitudinal population data and he is interested in the application of statistical, mathematical and GIS techniques in the understanding of human spatial patterns and processes. He will lead the project’s climate disadvantage mapping component.
Dr Rokia Raslan's (UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering) research focuses on performance modelling, optimisation and analysis in the context of built environment policy. She works with Government and Social Housing providers to assess the impact of housing stock changes on future performance. She will contribute to the policy aspects of the project.
Ms Eleni Oikonomou's (UCL Energy Institute) work focuses on energy use and indoor environmental quality in residential environments. She has undertaken Government-funded research on innovative approaches for energy efficient and sustainable retrofit in the UK housing sector. As part of this project, she will undertake meta-analysis of modelling data and mapping work.
The project at a glance
This interdisciplinary pilot project is funded by a Bartlett Synergy Grant. Its overarching aim is to accelerate the development of equitable responses to climate change for care provision in urban environments, with a focus on overheating risk using Greater London as a case study.
This will be achieved through the following objectives:
- to build a database of care home locations across London;
- to quantify the impactof building form and physical properties on the climate resilience of London care homes (building vulnerability) based on the meta-analysis of outputs of existing housing research undertaken at IEDE using building physics-based models but specifically focusing, for the first time, on care settings;
- to analyse the socio-spatial vulnerability of climate disadvantage in these areas by using CASA’s spatial analysis expertise and publicly available resources, such as the ClimateJust initiative;
- to co-create a new research proposal by engaging with public health, social care and planning policymakers.
Workshop: what, who and when
A half-day workshop on Mapping Climate Disadvantage for London’s Care Provision was held on the 10th May 2018 in central London. Built environment, spatial analysis and public health experts were invited to share their knowledge with other key stakeholders.
The objectives of the workshop were:
- to facilitate dissemination of preliminary results of ongoing work under this research project,
- to share ideas and collect expert and stakeholder feedback relating to the development of equitable responses to climate change for ageing and elderly populations,
- to share best-practice knowledgefor the mitigation of overheating risk in care homes with social care providers, outline required changes to existing inspection processes and map the potential costs associated with such risks and
- to identify possible partner collaborations, as this work will form the basis of a larger scale proposal.
Workshop Agenda
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