Workshop on Social Vulnerability and Clinical Fragility in the Face of Climate Change in a Major Northern Italian City: The Pilot Case of Turin

May 21, 2024 | Events

Workshop on Social Vulnerability and Clinical Fragility in the Face of Climate Change in a Major Northern Italian City: The Pilot Case of Turin

23-May 2024 | 09:00-13:00 CEST – In-person Workshop (ITALIAN)

On Wednesday 23 of May, the Sovrazonal Epidemiology Service of ASL TO3, in collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), organises the workshop titled “Vulnerabilità sociale e fragilità clinica negli effetti del cambiamento climatico in una grande città del Nord Italia: il caso pilota di Torino“. 

This workshop aims to facilitate the participatory development of a risk assessment tool designed to help city policies proactively address the health impacts of climate change.

The Turin pilot case is part of a city program aimed at making local planning and investment processes more informed about their expected impact on health. In particular, health inequalities are used as a measurement unit capable of identifying areas for health improvement where the energies and efforts of different sectors of local policies can converge.

In this context, a dialogue has already been initiated with stakeholders who participate in various roles in the development of city policies. Starting from the health inequality profile in the city, they have helped identify the most effective policies and interventions to improve health for all. Among the areas investigated, particular attention has been paid to the effects of heat waves on mortality. The Turin pilot case thus offers the opportunity to combine the wealth of environmental data and knowledge provided by SDGs-EYES with that on health inequalities, developing a risk assessment tool that serves city policies in identifying areas and groups at higher risk of health damage related to climate change. This tool will allow the assessment of the impact of heat waves on the health of the population at the micro-area level of residence.

The resulting product will be an interactive map showing the spatial distribution of the heat-health nexus at the census section level. By selecting a single section, more detailed information on the risk factors will be displayed, including climate indicators on extreme temperatures and “Urban Heat Islands” (UHIs), as well as other indicators on the characteristics of the resident population and the residential context: demographic, socioeconomic, health, and urban structure indicators, as well as the availability of nearby services. This information will enable decision-makers and stakeholders to set intervention priorities, considering differences in climate hazard concentration, population vulnerability, and the adaptive capacity of the territory.

Through this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to contribute to:

  • Identifying knowledge needs that arise in decision-making processes related to the adaptation and mitigation of the impact of climate change on health;
  • Integrating/suggesting additional variables to the list of indicators to be considered in the tool concerning their area of expertise;
  • Contributing to judging the relative importance that each selected indicator should have in the risk assessment tool.

The workshop will be held in Italian, at the “Polaris” room of the Fondazione Links, Via Pier Carlo Boggio 61, Turin.