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. 2023 Feb 6;20(4):2852.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20042852.

Developing a Healthy Environment Assessment Tool (HEAT) to Address Heat-Health Vulnerability in South African Towns in a Warming World

Caradee Y Wright  1   2 , Angela Mathee  3   4   5 , Cheryl Goldstone  6 , Natasha Naidoo  1 , Thandi Kapwata  3   4   5 , Bianca Wernecke  3   4 , Zamantimande Kunene  3 , Danielle A Millar  2
Affiliations

Developing a Healthy Environment Assessment Tool (HEAT) to Address Heat-Health Vulnerability in South African Towns in a Warming World

Caradee Y Wright et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can cause heat-related illnesses and accelerate death, especially in the elderly. We developed a locally-appropriate Healthy Environment Assessment Tool, or 'HEAT' tool, to assess heat-health risks among communities. HEAT was co-developed with stakeholders and practitioners/professionals from the Rustenburg Local Municipality (RLM), a setting in which heat was identified as a risk in an earlier study. Feedback was used to identify vulnerable groups and settings in RLM, consider opportunities and barriers for interventions, and conceptualize a heat-health vulnerability assessment tool for a heat-resilient town. Using information provided by the RLM Integrated Development Plan, the HEAT tool was applied in the form of eight indicators relating to heat-health vulnerability and resilience and areas were evaluated at the ward level. Indicators included population, poverty, education, access to medical facilities, sanitation and basic services, public transport, recreation/community centres, and green spaces. Out of 45 wards situated in the municipality, three were identified as critical risk (red), twenty-eight as medium-high risk (yellow), and six as low risk (green) in relation to heat-health vulnerability. Short-term actions to improve heat health resilience in the community were proposed and partnerships between local government and the community to build heat health resilience were identified.

Keywords: adaptation; climate change; environmental health; environmental indicators; global heating; heatwaves.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of Rustenburg Local Municipality in the North-West province of South Africa.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The steps we followed in an inclusive assessment of health vulnerability to heat events.
Figure 3
Figure 3
An RLM member of the mayoral committee opens the stakeholder workshop in Rustenburg with a brief address about the importance of this project (Permission obtained from participants to take the photograph at the workshop).
Figure 4
Figure 4
RLM members worked in a focus group to discuss and capture ideas about how extreme heat events affected the RLM community as well as provided their thoughts about heat-health indicators (Permission obtained from participants to take the photograph at the workshop).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Description of HEAT heat-health indicators related to vulnerability and resilience. Some indicators do not have all three risk categories due to insufficient information to classify the comments and information in the IDP into more than two categories. In this instance, there will either be green and yellow (no red) or green and red (no yellow).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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