The Drexel Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center

The Drexel Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center (CCUH) at the Dornsife School of Public Health's Urban Health Collaborative is an exploratory center funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

CCUH synthesizes existing expertise at Drexel University and our partner institutions on urban health, health equity, and environmental health to organize and accelerate climate change-focused research efforts at our universities. CCUH builds on a foundation of climate work established through initiatives such as the Urban Health Collaborative’s (UHC) Climate and Health Equity Working Group and leverages global connections formed through the Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project. CCUH reflects an explicit commitment from Drexel University, Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH), and the UHC to explore and provide evidence to address the health impacts of climate change.

CCUH conducts research on the impacts of climate change on health and health equity in urban areas across the Americas, partnering with research institutions and policymakers from throughout the region to build capacity for multi-country, transdisciplinary climate and health research, and to promote evidence-informed urban policies.

CCUH partners include six institutions in the United States, Guatemala, and Brazil: the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative, the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), the University of California, Berkeley, the University of São Paulo, the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG)/Belo Horizonte, and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro.

Learn more about our team

Why Study Climate Change and Health in Cities?

Across North and South America, over 80% of the population resides in urban areas. Cities, particularly in low- and middle- income countries, can be especially vulnerable to climate hazards due to their geographic, demographic, and built environment characteristics. In addition, high levels of inequality within cities put some urban communities at greater risk.

As urban populations continue to increase worldwide, unsustainable patterns of consumption and greenhouse gas emissions will exacerbate ongoing climate change. Globally, cities account for over 70% of CO2 emissions.

Cities present opportunities to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. To take advantage of these opportunities cities will need robust, context-specific, and actionable evidence that connects climate change to urban features that can be modified via urban policy and planning decisions. To this end, CCUH is conducting comparative cross-city and cross-country analyses to explore and demonstrate the specific climate- and city-related factors that impact health. Comparisons across a variety of settings and with large datasets help CCUH identify the most impactful interventions that can promote health, equity, and sustainability in urban communities across the Americas.

Learn More About Our Work

CCUH leverages existing partnerships with cities and urban health teams across the Americas to lay the foundation for impactful work on how climate change affects urban health and what cities can do about it. The four CCUH Cores include:

An Administrative Core that ensures participatory governance as well as coordination and integration across all activities, projects, and cores; supports integrated data infrastructure; and evaluates and plans for sustainability.

A Research Project that conducts cross-city comparative analysis of differential neighborhood vulnerability to the health impacts of heat. The Research Project serves as an exemplar of cross-city research that can be scaled up to other climate change-related exposures and outcomes, and to other urban areas across the Americas.

A Research Capacity Building Core strengthens capacity to conduct research on climate change and health in cities among urban health research teams in the U.S. and Latin America, with a focus on researchers from low- and middle-income countries and diverse backgrounds. Learn more about our current research.

A Community Engagement Core engages a broad set of urban community and policy actors to ensure the responsiveness of our research to local needs and strengthen community and policy actors’ capacity to use research findings for advocacy and action. Learn more about our community engagement.

CCUH Events

CCUH events include public webinars and an invited speaker series.

Watch our past webinars on YouTube.