SUMMARY– OVERALL
The central theme of the Drexel Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center (CCUH) is the creation
and dissemination/translation of evidence that will support urban policies to address the health and equity
impacts of climate change in cities. Urban areas are key contributors to climate change and are home to large
inequities, but also present many opportunities for action. Urbanization is occurring more rapidly in lower-and
middle-income countries, and climate change is spurring migration across countries. Research on the health
impacts of climate change must span urban communities across countries, yet little work has focused on intra-
urban inequities or conducted comparative analyses of these inequities across heterogeneous cities. Based on
our established, productive collaboration across 13 institutions in the US and Latin America, we aim to build
institutional capacity at Drexel and at three partner sites included in this formative Center (University of
California Berkeley, University of São Paulo in Brazil, and INCAP in Guatemala) to support action-oriented
research on the impacts of climate change on population health and health inequities in diverse cities across
the Americas. Specifically, we will leverage existing strengths at Drexel in urban health and health equity, our
research network on urban health in Latin America (the Salud Urbana en America Latina or SALURBAL study)
and our work with US partners including US Big Cities Health Coalition. This robust, existing infrastructure will
enable us to expand our urban health and health equity work to encompass the generation of solutions-
oriented evidence on the impacts of climate change on health in cities and translate that evidence into actions
in partnership with communities and policymakers. Our aims are: (1) to create an organizational structure that
promotes collaborative and inclusive transdisciplinary and policy-relevant research on climate change and
health across cities of the Americas (Administrative Core); (2) to support capacity-strengthening for research
on climate change 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 multi-country research on climate change and health equity through a
research project on intra-urban inequities engaging researchers from the US and Latin America (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 climate change on health and health equity in urban areas. Our
ultimate goal is to become a center of excellence on climate change and urban health with a strong equity
focus, global reach and meaningful engagement of policy makers and communities to maximize policy impact.