Climate change sensitivity profiles for New Brunswick Health Council communities: Provincial profile: February 28, 2022
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Date
2022-02-28
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Publisher
New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training
Abstract
The New Brunswick (NB) HealthADAPT project is a multi-year initiative funded by the Climate Change Innovation Bureau of Health Canada and led by the Government of New Brunswick’s Department of Health. The goal of NB HealthADAPT is to test tools for assessing health-related vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in an urban and rural setting (i.e., the urban City of Moncton and the rural Region of Chaleur). Ultimately, this project aims to help the health sector in NB prepare for and respond to the impacts of climate change.
Tracking changes in health-related vulnerabilities over time provides insight into how climate changes may be impacting the health of our communities, as well as how adaptation plans may modify these impacts. For example, increases in hospitalizations related to extreme weather events are expected as these events become more frequent, with anticipated changes in our climate. However, communities that implement adaptation plans to mitigate impacts may have smaller changes in rates of hospitalizations than communities that did not. This project provides a starting point to help track health impacts related to climate change into the future.
Profiles of health-related vulnerabilities for each of NB’s 33 Health Council Communities (HCCs) are presented in this report. Profiles are based on priority areas identified by the Department of Health, and they are characterized using 12 indicators derived from administrative data for the entire population residing in each HCC.