How is the world preparing for the next disaster?

Los Angeles, Cape Town and Barcelona are already preparing for the floods, heat waves and epidemics brought by climate change. Meanwhile in Israel, it turns out that no city yet has such a plan
By Maya Falah, Angle - news agency for science and the environment

Floods, storms, forest fires and sea level rise are just some of the "pleasures" that experts assure us will increase as global climate change, which is bad for us, gains momentum. In Israel, too, we have witnessed many extreme weather events in recent years: extreme and long heat waves, dust storms that covered the country's skies with a veil of yellow dust for days, cities in Sharon that were flooded by several events of heavy rain and a snowstorm that paralyzed Jerusalem for nearly a week.

Such events are expected to undoubtedly affect our health: a White House report released just a few months ago predicts that climate change and the extreme weather events that accompany it will bring with them health problems such as outbreaks of infectious diseases due to rising temperatures, dehydration and death due to heat waves, and an increase in respiratory and allergic diseases Following a decrease in air quality, and more.

Instead of sitting and biting our nails in fear of what is to come, there are countries and cities that are preparing for the effects of climate change and are implementing a series of measures and measures in the planning of their streets and infrastructure, among the communities living in them, as well as in their health system, that will help them prepare for it. In a new study, Dr. Shlomit Paz from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and Dr. Mia Negev from the School of Public Health at the University of Haifa decided to examine the preparation plans of cities with a climate similar to ours - the Mediterranean climate - in order to check which measures can help maintain health The population in the shadow of climate change.

In Los Angeles they plant trees, in Santiago they build greenery

Besides the Mediterranean basin, there are several other regions in the world that are defined as having a Mediterranean climate - characterized by a hot dry season, and a rainy and cold season with relatively moderate temperatures. Such areas are found in the south and south-west of Australia, in South Africa, in the state of California in the USA, in north-west Mexico and in central Chile. These areas are considered relatively sensitive to the effects of climate change and are expected to suffer from extreme events with increasing frequency in the coming decades.

"The research was born out of the understanding that basically the whole world faces similar challenges," says Dr. Mia Negev, "In view of the culture of the population in cities and the increasing density in them, the need to take care of all residents even when extreme events occur is definitely a challenge. That's why we decided to check how different cities in the world - with an emphasis on cities that are similar to us in terms of climate, and are therefore expected to face similar challenges - prepare for the whole issue of climate change in terms of preparing for risks to public health.'

The researchers chose to focus on five cities from five different continents, which have detailed preparation plans for climate change: Adelaide (Australia), Barcelona (Spain), Cape Town (South Africa), Los Angeles (USA) and Santiago (Chile). "Originally we wanted to include Israel as well, but unfortunately we found that no city in Israel still has a climate change preparedness plan," says Negev.

In each city, the researchers tested the readiness for the health risks of climate change in eight different aspects. Among the aspects examined: preparedness for the rise in temperature and the occurrence of heat waves; preparedness for heavy rains and floods; lack of water supply and damage to its quality; loss of biological diversity and damage to the functioning of the ecosystem; and preparedness for the outbreak of diseases transmitted through water, by food and by carriers such as mosquitoes and various parasites.

"We found very significant differences between the cities both in the level of preparedness and in the ways of coping," says Negev. "Adelaide and Barcelona are examples of cities that have a very comprehensive plan for preparing for climate change that includes a wide range of issues, while Los Angeles, for example, was a surprise with an old and not comprehensive plan at all - contrary to what we would expect from a large and progressive city in the USA."

In certain subjects, the researchers actually found similarities between the preparation methods that the cities chose. For example, all the cities addressed the issue of water supply and quality in their plans, and most of them recognized the need to reduce water consumption in order to prepare for times of water shortage. In Santiago, for example, it was proposed to optimize the agricultural irrigation systems - so that less water would be wasted, and in some of the cities the plans referred to improving the reclamation capacity of water sources or wastewater (purified wastewater) for the benefit of irrigation.

Also on the subject of preparing for heavy rains and floods, some of the solutions given were similar. Adelaide, for example, chose to focus on natural solutions for flood management - such as adding permeable vegetation in the streets and building according to the topography, which will allow easy drainage of rainwater. In Santiago, too, they suggested adding vegetation to the edges of the streets and building sidewalks that allow rainwater to seep through them.

However, referring to other aspects, the researchers found substantial differences between the programs. "On the issue of preparedness for rising temperatures - identified by the cities as the most prominent and essential issue among the health challenges - the solution given in each city was different," says Negev. "In Adelaide they talked about increasing the amount of vegetation on the streets to reduce the urban heat island effect (an effect created in cities due to heat emissions from concrete and asphalt, the density and the increased gas emissions from transportation and industrial areas - MP), in Santiago they talked about the assimilation of green building standards in new projects and Planning ventilation corridors in the cities. There were important and correct things, but it seems that the cities have a lot more to learn from each other, and it's a shame that there is no organized information sharing on the subject."

Proper preparation saves lives

"Climate change affects public health already in the short and immediate term," says Negev. "We already see it in the extreme events we are experiencing today: heat and cold waves, floods and storms. This means that already today we need to prepare and prepare our health systems to deal with these challenges, and there are countries that are already doing this with varying degrees of success.

"Europe, for example, suffered from an extreme heat wave already in 2003, in which an estimated 70,000 people died, of which about 15,000 were in France. Various countries in Europe developed heat wave assessment programs, and indeed in the heat wave that occurred in France in 2006, only About 2,000 people (according to the data of 2003, the expected mortality of about 6,000 people).

"It is true that this is still a high death rate, but it is still a significant improvement compared to what happened three years before. The lives of 4,000 people were saved due to the implementation of an effective preparedness plan, which included policy changes and early preparation. Therefore, one of the most important conclusions is that the implementation of policy measures And orderly preparation for the future saves lives - sometimes the lives of tens and hundreds of thousands of people.

"Because the health impact of climate change is so multidisciplinary, the preparation should also be multidisciplinary," concludes Negev. "In this context, by the way, it should be remembered that not everything that deals with preparedness for the changes and extreme events is framed under the name 'preparation for climate change'. In Israel, for example, although there is no official preparedness plan at the moment, neither in the cities nor at the political level, we are nevertheless prepared for extreme events in terms of health The public in a relatively good way: for example, in the cold wave that hit Jerusalem about two years ago, there was not a single fatality, so we also have a lot of knowledge and a lot of potential in Israel, which needs to be harnessed and use it to prepare for the next.

"Right now, I think the main problem in Israel is that climate change is not yet perceived by us as a significant problem that needs to be addressed and prepared for. Once that happens, there are many things we can do that will help us be ready for whatever comes next."