Why Study Climate Change In Cities?
A growing proportion of the global population lives 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 already account for over 70% of CO2 emissions.
Urban areas present opportunities to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. To take advantage of these opportunities, cities need robust, context-specific, and actionable evidence that connects climate change to health and to urban features that can be modified via urban policy and planning decisions.
Climate change has broad and complex impacts on health in cities.
Climate change can directly affect health through increases in environmental hazards, such as extreme heat, floods, storms, and wildfires. It can also indirectly affect health through the disruption of food and economic systems, as well as through forced migration. Both direct and indirect pathways have short-term health impacts (including injury, mental health consequences, and death) as well as longer-term impacts (like the development of chronic disease and the impacts of migration and relocation on health).
Exposure to climate hazards is inequitably distributed across urban populations.
Low-income and racialized communities may be more likely to experience higher air pollution, extreme heat, or floods. These communities may also be more vulnerable to health impacts of climate change-related hazards because of pre-existing health conditions and limited ability to buffer or adapt to climate change.
Some climate hazards, including extreme heat and storms, can be made worse by characteristics of the urban environment.
Features of urban built environments like building design, lack of green spaces, or poor drainage can magnify adverse impacts of heat and floods. Air pollution from car-dependent transportation and industry can interact with heat, magnifying its effects.
What Are We Doing at the Urban Health Collaborative?
Understanding how climate change contributes to health and health disparities in cities and identifying the interventions and policies that reduce these impacts is a critical global health need. The Drexel Urban Health Collaborative is working with partners in Philadelphia, in the United States, and across the globe to address the impacts of climate change on health and health equity in cities.
Researchers at the UHC are documenting the ways climate change affects health in cities worldwide and identifying policies and interventions that can reduce these impacts. Our research design and practice emphasize community and policy partnerships as well as capacity strengthening. We engage with a wide variety of non-academic actors across our local Philadelphia community, throughout urban areas in the United States, and in cities across Latin America and across the globe. Our dissemination efforts seek to develop innovative products and approaches for translating complex research findings and evidence surrounding the health impacts of climate change to broad audiences.
Learn more about climate change programs here at the Urban Health Collaborative and across Drexel University:
Climate Change and Urban Health in Latin America (SALURBAL-Climate)
About SALURBAL-Climate
Since 2017, the Urban Health Collaborative has collaborated with research institutions and policy partners across Latin America to study the ways that urban environments and policies affect health in Latin American cities.
Heat and Health in Brazilian Cities
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A SALURBAL-Climate collaboration with the World Resources Institute (WRI), this study examines the role of social factors and the built environment in determining health-related impacts of extreme heat across different neighborhoods in Belo Horizonte and Campinas, Brazil.
Other Climate Change Research at the UHC
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Faculty at the Urban Health Collaborative and the Dornsife School of Public Health are working to address climate change as it affects communities locally and globally.
Resources for Students and Trainees
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The Dornsife School of Public Health offers a variety of courses and learning opportunities that provide students with a foundation in the connections between climate, policy, health, and health equity.
Engagement Opportunities
Past Events and Trainings on Climate Change and Urban Health
Over the course of the Drexel Center for Climate Change and Urban Health's operation, it hosted a variety of different trainings, lectures, and informational sessions on how to activate research on climate change and urban health. View them here.
Join the UHC Mailing List
The Urban Health Collaborative has a monthly newsletter and regularly holds events at the intersection of climate change and urban health. Stay up to date by joining the mailing list here.
Participate in the UHC Summer Institute
The Urban Health Summer Institute offers short skills and substantive courses for practitioners, researchers, and students of all levels interested in improving health in cities every summer at the Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health. Summer Institute courses cover a range of topics and methods, including the connections between climate change and health. Learn more here.
Join UHC Climate Change and Health Journal Club
Journal club sessions are monthly, fully virtual, and scheduled for the fourth Thursday of every month from 12:30-1:30pm ET. Papers and other information about the session is shared one week ahead of each call. To join, please contact Juan Carlos Figueroa (jcf333@drexel.edu).
Register for the September 2025 UHC/SALURBAL-Climate Pre-Symposium Event: “Climate Change and Urban Health: A Focus on the Future”
This event will address challenges and opportunities in examining the impacts of climate change on cities worldwide. Panels will cover innovative methodologies for studying the connections between climate and health, the ways policymakers use evidence, and how researchers can more effectively engage to support policy work. Learn more and register here.