Drexel ResearCh Center on Extreme Weather and Urban Health (CCUH)

ABSTRACT The central theme of the Drexel ResearCh Center on Extreme Weather and Urban Health (CCUH) is the creation and dissemination/translation of evidence that will support urban policies to address the health impacts of extreme weather events in cities. Urban areas are especially vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather, but also present many opportunities for action. Research on the health impacts of extreme weather must span many different kinds of urban communities and must also consider differences in impacts across neighborhoods within cities. Based on the Urban Health Collaborative’s established collaborations and research portfolio on the factors that impact urban health we aim to build institutional capacity at Drexel and across our team to support action-oriented research on the impacts of extreme weather on population health and health disparities in cities. Specifically, we will leverage existing strengths at Drexel in urban health and health disparities, our research network on urban health across cities. This robust, existing infrastructure will enable us to expand our urban health and health disparities work to encompass the generation of solutions-oriented evidence on the impacts of extreme weather on health in cities and translate that evidence into actions in partnership with communities and policymakers. The Center will focus on extreme heat but will build the capacity needed to expand to other extreme weather events that impact urban areas (such as storms, floods and wildfires). Our aims are: (1) to create an organizational structure that promotes collaborative transdisciplinary and policy-relevant research on extreme weather and health in cities (Administrative Core); (2) to support capacity-strengthening for research on extreme weather health impacts in urban settings through structured training activities, funding pilot grants and research methods translation and support (Research Capacity Building Core); (2) to demonstrate the informativeness and policy-relevance of research on extreme weather and health disparities through a research project on intra-urban disparities (Research Project) and (4) to increase capacity for policy translation and policy impact through the engagement of policy makers and impacted urban communities in order to inform future research questions, as well as dissemination and translation efforts to maximize impact (Community Engagement Core.) Through these aims we will support the creation of the infrastructure, research and engagement capacity, and partnerships needed to expand policy relevant research on the impacts of extreme weather on health and health disparities in urban areas. Our ultimate goal is to become a center of excellence on extreme weather and urban health and meaningful engagement of policy makers and communities to maximize policy impact.