INTRO | HIGHLIGHTS | FEATURES | FOCUS | PERSPECTIVES | BIOS
The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment
(CCRA) draws attention to the importance of
planning ahead for the effects of a changing
climate in the UK over the coming decades.
While reducing C02 emissions in order to
mitigate climate change is very important, so
too is action to adapt to changes in climate that
are now inevitable. We expect to see changes in
the pattern of extreme weather events (such as
heatwaves and coldwaves) and related hazards
such as flooding. Climate change research helps
us to understand these changes and develop
appropriate measures for preparation and
adaptation to extreme weather events. Health
and social care planners, for example, are
already working to make health and social care
more resilient to climate change. Their task is
to ensure that key services for groups such as
vulnerable older people and their carers are
maintained as well as possible during periods
of extreme weather.
To help with this process the project Built
Infrastructure for Older People’s Care in
Conditions of Climate Change (BIOPICCC), is
working closely with the public, private and
voluntary sections in the UK. We are helping
to organise knowledge about the service needs
in local communities and identify services and
supporting infrastructures which are most likely to
be disrupted due to extreme weather in the future.
Older people needing health and social care
depend on help from their family, friends
and health and social care staff or volunteers
alongside more formal provisions. Also
essential is infrastructure such as roads,
electricity and water supplies, and access to
facilities such as hospitals, clinics, dispensaries
and community centres. The BIOPICCC project
involves researchers from Durham and HeriotWatt Universities, working with local authorities
in England to inform planning for older
people’s care facilities and the infrastructure
that underlies them. The project is part of a
programme of linked studies funded by the UK
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council to examine Adaptation and Resilience
to a Changing Climate (ARCC).
The project benefits from the special capacity
in IHRR to combine knowledge and research
methods from different disciplines to show
how local adaptation over the medium term
can help to allay the impacts of environmental
change. Although it is focussed on England,
this research also has international implications
for assessing, communicating and mitigating
extreme weather events (e.g. floods and
heatwaves) caused by climate change
around the world.
The pattern of extreme weather events is likely
to change throughout England over the next
30 years due to climate change. Preparing for
future events related to extreme weather, such
as floods and heatwaves, as well as continuing
risks of coldwaves, is essential for human
adaptation to a changing climate. Modifying
infrastructure responsible for the care of older
people (age 65+) is important because they
often need to use services and also this age
group is projected to increase relatively rapidly
over the coming decades.
Projections for demographic and climate
change suggest that the effect of future trends
will vary across different parts of England. The
project has mapped the expected distribution
of older people across England by 2031 using
population data from the Office for National
Statistics, to show where the oldest and
potentially most ‘vulnerable’ population will
grow fastest and be most concentrated. Using
the latest available projections for trends in
temperature and flood hazard we have also
mapped geographical patterns of ‘hazard’ for
heatwaves, coldwaves and floods. These maps
help us identify areas where forward planning
is especially important to adapt and build
resilience in services and infrastructure for
older people’s care.