Between June-August 2022, over 3,000 excess deaths occurred in England and Wales. There were increased deaths during the August 2022 heat-periods in private homes (11.6%>average), care homes (9.2%) and hospitals (5.8%). Vulnerable populations may be unable to adapt their environment or behaviours, and will be disproportionately affected by climate change, widening health inequalities. Vulnerable occupants may also be unable to leave their overheated homes or modify their environment through ventilation/shading. Net zero built environment interventions, therefore, need to be combined with overheating mitigation strategies focusing on nature-based solutions, shading, enhanced ventilation and cool materials. HEARTH uniquely brings together the diverse range of disciplines required to tackle the urgent challenge of meeting net zero targets and adapting homes of differing tenures and socioeconomic status, and multi-functional residential environments to extreme heat and associated cascading effects whilst avoiding adverse health effects and health inequalities.

 

We will employ a mixed methods approach, including state-of-the-art climate modelling at the regional / city / neighbourhood / building / indoor level, quantifying exposures of heat-vulnerable individuals now and in future, surveys of occupant comfort, heat management, behaviours, physical/mental health, and health impact modelling, for a range of net zero and climate change mitigation/adaptation interventions. Our planned transdisciplinary collaboration will be underpinned by effective user engagement, co-design from the outset, and a systems-approach that “involves understanding that human health outcomes emerge from complex interactions between natural and social systems and that stakeholder engagement is necessary in the co-production of this knowledge”.

 

HEARTH will employ a stakeholder-led, solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary approach comprising
five Work Streams (WS) and three Cross-Cutting Themes (CT). We focus on 5 study areas:
Brighton, London, Oxfordshire, Leeds-Bradford and Edinburgh, representing a latitudinal transect of UK’s climate, urban/suburban/rural and coastal/inland characteristics, various socioeconomic and demographic profiles, and which build on our Project Partner (PPs) networks in these locations.