Community Health and Climate Change
Mapping Exposure, Sensitivity, and Adaptive Capacity to Four Health-Related Climate Hazards
Climate Change and Community Health
Climate change is projected to increase several climate-related hazards in British Columbia, including the frequency and severity of river flooding and sea level rise, extreme heat events, wildfires and wildfire smoke events, and ozone air pollution.
These increasing hazards will have significant implications for the health and well-being of communities across British Columbia, including those under the jurisdiction of Vancouver Coastal Health and the Fraser Health Authority. Climate-sensitive hazards lead to a number of negative physical and mental outcomes, including injury, illness, and death, as well as mental health impacts like stress, anxiety and trauma.
This project was created to help identify the differences between communities under the responsibility of these health authorities in terms of their vulnerability to four hazards:
- Higher summer temperatures
- Coastal and riverine flooding
- Wildfire smoke events
- Ozone air pollution
Community vulnerability is defined and mapped here as a function of three key factors:
- Its exposure to a hazard
- Its sensitivity to that hazard,
- Its adaptive capacity, or its ability to manage or adapt to the hazard.
We will explore each climate hazard with example communities across Fraser Valley and Vancouver Coastal Health authorities.
You can skip forward to a climate hazard by selecting tabs at the top of this page. You can also select Regional Maps to access interactive maps of all climate hazards for each of the communities.
Cartographer's note: This analysis has been mapped at the census dissemination area and is masked to inhabited areas as identified by the census in 2016.
High Temperatures
This map shows the vulnerability to higher summer temperatures in the Central Vancouver area.
Darker shades of red indicate communities that are more vulnerable to higher temperatures than communities represented by lighter shades.
We can see some variation in communities' vulnerability to high temperatures.
Let's walk through the three factors that contribute to a community's overall vulnerability.
This layer of the map shows community exposure to higher temperatures.
A deeper shade of red indicates a higher degree days over 18°C.
In this case, exposure to higher temperatures is represented by the daily maximum temperature recorded in each area.
This layer of the map shows sensitivity to higher temperatures.
Sensitivity is determined by two key factors: the age of the population, and their pre-existing health conditions. Both of these were found by UBC researchers to affect individual health during extreme heat events. For example, elderly people are more prone to heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion. This layer of the map helps us understand where those people are located.
Darker shades of red indicate communities that share similarly high numbers of elderly people and people with pre-existing health conditions that make them more sensitive to higher temperatures.
The final component of vulnerability to higher temperatures is adaptive capacity. This represents the ability of the community to adapt and is determined by factors such as:
- Income and social status
- Physical environments (e.g., housing, etc.)
- Education and literacy
In this map layer, darker shades of red indicate communities with lower adaptive capacity. Lower adaptive capacity is often the result of structural inequalities or marginalization.
A combination of these three key factors gives us a measure of the overall vulnerability of this community to high temperatures
Wildfire Smoke Vulnerability
This map shows vulnerability to wildfire smoke events over Chilliwack. As described in the previous sections, community vulnerability is defined and mapped here as a function of exposure to wildfire smoke, sensitivity to its effects, and adaptive capacity to deal with these effects.
Darker shades of purple indicate communities that are more vulnerable to wildfire smoke events than communities represented by lighter shades.
We can see variation in communities vulnerability to high temperatures.
Let's walk through the three factors that contribute to a community's overall vulnerability.
This layer of the map shows community exposure to smoke events.
Exposure to wildfire smoke is represented by the number of days with PM2.5 concentrations above 25ug/m3 over the five most severe fire seasons between 2009 and 2018.
Darker shades of purple indicate higher exposure to wildfire smoke.
This map layer shows community sensitivity to wildfire smoke events.
Sensitivity is determined by two key factors: the age of the population, and their pre-existing health conditions. Both of these were found by UBC researchers to affect individual health during wildfire smoke events. For example, inhaling wildfire smoke can exacerbate asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, especially in children and the elderly. This layer of the map helps us understand where those people are located.
Darker shades indicate communities that share similarly high numbers of elderly people and people with pre-existing health conditions that make them more sensitive to wildfire smoke.
This final map shows community adaptive capacity. This represents the ability of a community to adapt to wildfire smoke, and is determined by factors such as:
- Income and social status
- Education and literacy
- Social supports and coping skills
Darker shades indicate communities with lower adaptive capacity. Lower adaptive capacity is often the result of structural inequalities or marginalization.
A combination of these three key factors gives us a measure of the overall vulnerability of this community to wildfire smoke events.
Flooding
This map shows vulnerability to coastal and riverine flooding events in Squamish.
Darker shades of blue indicate communities that are more vulnerable to flooding than communities represented by lighter shades.
We can see some variation in communities' vulnerability to floods.
Let's walk through the three factors that contribute to a community's overall vulnerability.
This layer of the map shows community exposure to flooding.
Exposure to flooding is represented by areas within 200 year flood plain, coastal, and freshet flooding.
A deeper shade of blue indicates a higher concentration of flooding.
This map shows community sensitivity to flooding.
Sensitivity is determined by two key factors: the age of the population, and their pre-existing health conditions. Both of these were found by UBC researchers to influence the extent to which people experience negative physical and mental health impacts during flood events.
Darker shades of blue indicate communities that share similarly high numbers of elderly people and people with pre-existing health conditions that make them more sensitive to floods.
This final map shows community adaptive capacity. This represents the ability of a community to adapt to flood events, and is determined by factors such as:
- Income and social status
- Education and literacy
- Physical environments (e.g., housing, etc.)
- Social supports and coping skills
Darker shades of blue indicate communities with lower adaptive capacity. Lower adaptive capacity is often the result of structural inequalities or marginalization.
When all three determinants of vulnerability are layered on top of one another, we have an estimate of the overall vulnerability to flooding for a particular neighbourhood. The map on the right represents a combination of the data from the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity maps, and represents a snapshot of community health vulnerability to climate change based on current data. As communities become more prepared, and as demographics change, so too will the maps.
Ground-Level Ozone
This map shows vulnerability to ground-level ozone in New Westminster.
Darker shades indicate communities that are more vulnerable to ground-level ozone than communities represented by lighter shades.
We can see quite a bit of diversity in different communities’ vulnerability to ground-level ozone. To figure out why this is, we can walk through the three factors that contribute to vulnerability.
This map shows community exposure to ground-level ozone.
Exposure to ground-level ozone is represented by annual modelled concentration estimates of ground-level ozone.
A darker shade indicates a higher concentration of ground-level ozone.
This map shows community sensitivity to ground-level ozone.
Sensitivity is determined by two key factors: the age of the population, and their pre-existing health conditions. Both of these were found by UBC researchers to affect individual health during extreme heat events. This layer of the map helps us understand where those people are located.
Darker shades indicate communities that have similarities in age and pre-existing health conditions that make them more sensitive to ground-level ozone.
This final map shows community adaptive capacity. This represents the ability of a community to adapt to ground-level ozone, and is determined by factors such as:
- Employment and working conditions
- Income and social status
- Physical environments (e.g., housing, etc.)
Darker shades of green indicate communities with lower adaptive capacity. Lower adaptive capacity is often the result of structural inequalities or marginalization.
When all three determinants of vulnerability are layered on top of one another, we have an estimate of the overall vulnerability to ground-level ozone for a particular neighbourhood. The map on the right represents a combination of the data from the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity maps, and represents a snapshot of community health vulnerability to ground level ozone based on current data. As communities become more prepared, and as demographics change, so too will the maps.
Regional Maps
Community Health and Climate Change maps have been developed separately for each of the regions below. Select your region of interest to view the overall vulnerability, exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity layers for each climate hazard. It is important to note that scores are calculated relative to the data in their own region and should not be compared against other regions
City of Vancouver
Richmond
Coastal, Rural
Coastal, Urban
Abbotsford-Chilliwack-Hope
Burnaby-Coquitlam-Maple Ridge
Delta-Surrey-Langley
City of Vancouver
Coastal, Rural
Coastal, Urban
Abbotsford-Chilliwack-Hope
Burnaby-Coquitlam-Maple Ridge
Delta-Surrey-Langley
Project Summary
Technical Report
Acknowledgements
This project has been made possible by funding from:
Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health, Health Emergency Management BC, and Facilities Management, as project partners, were awarded funding through Health Canada’s Climate Change and Health Adaptation Capacity Building Contribution Funding Program. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of Health Canada.
In addition to the support provided by Health Canada, this work was made possible by the effort of dozens of people within and beyond the Health Authorities, including dozens of reviewers who participated in formal engagement sessions, and those who provided feedback in other ways. Specific acknowledgment goes to the following for their efforts in bringing this project to fruition:
Dr. James Lu, Dr. Michael Brauer, Emily Peterson, Jessica Yu, Kaitlin Castellani, Angela Yao, Krista Cawley, Xuan Zhao, Craig Brown, Dr. Michael Schwandt, Dr. Alex Choi, Angie Woo, Randy Ash, Oonagh Kerwin, Amy Lubik, Scott Blessin, Duncan Lu, Elden Chan, Matt Keiltyka, Aletta Vanderheyden, Richard Taki, Licker Geospatial Consulting Co., and Integral Group.,
Data for this analysis was made available by CANUE, BC Center for Disease Control, BC Ministry of Health, City of Vancouver, Fraser Basin Council, Fraser Health Authority, Resilient-C, Statistics Canada, University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health.
Did you know that an Interior Health vulnerability mapping is also available? Click the banner below to be redirected to the Interior Health story map.
