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Public Health Related to Climate Change
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Public Health Related to Climate Change

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Health, Well-Being and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 15157

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Alfonso González González

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University of Extremadura, Badajoz 06006,Spain
Interests: sustainability; ecodesign; energy efficiency; healthcare engineering; healthcare building design; energy efficiency in building
Prof. Dr. Justo García Sanz-Calcedo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering Projects, University of Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Interests: innovations in the research of healthcare buildings; healthcare engineering; buildings; project engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues, 

Climate change influences human health and disease in numerous ways. Some existing health threats will intensify and new health threats will emerge. Public health can be affected by disruptions of physical, biological, and ecological systems, including disturbances originating here and elsewhere. The health effects of these disruptions include increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, injuries and premature deaths related to extreme weather events, changes in the prevalence and geographical distribution of food- and water-borne illnesses and other infectious diseases, and threats to mental health. 

Healthcare buildings are equipped with extensive and complex facilities. Certain characteristics are required in order to guarantee their sustainability: adequate design, high quality equipment, and maintenance efficiency, among others. 

This Special Issue includes new research and the latest technologies related to public health and climate change. In particular, it includes a series of documents focused on: 

  • Impact of climate change on health;
  • Effect of climate change on healthcare infrastructure;
  • Resilient hospital facilities;
  • Air quality improvement;
  • Advanced reliability-based maintenance;
  • Educational methodologies for eco-efficiency in public health care;
  • Measures of control for the sustainability for healthcare organizations;
  • Control indicators for the prevention and adaptation of public health to reduce the impact of climate change;
  • Urban mobility;
  • Innovative and cost-effective solutions for the public health sector and activities to minimize environmental impacts and climate change;
  • Low-carbon design. 

This Special Issue aims to analyze the relation between public health and climate change. This issue focuses on new research and the latest technologies related to public health and climate change. 

Within the field of healthcare sustainability, this Special Issue contributes to better understand and develop new technologies and their implementation in order to improve management efficiency in healthcare facilities. 

Prof. Dr. Alfonso González González
Prof. Justo Garcia Sanz-Calcedo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • healthcare engineering
  • healthcare building design
  • hospital facilities
  • sustainable hospital management
  • public health
  • climate change

Published Papers (3 papers)

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14 pages, 866 KiB  
Article
Why Do We Harm the Environment or Our Personal Health despite Better Knowledge? The Knowledge Action Gap in Healthy and Climate-Friendly Behavior
by Melanie Frick, Leonie Neu, Nina Liebhaber, Barbara Sperner-Unterweger, Johann Stötter, Lars Keller and Katharina Hüfner
Sustainability 2021, 13(23), 13361; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313361 - 02 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2893
Abstract
Non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, or depression, result from an interplay of physiological, genetic, behavioral, and environmental aspects. Together with climate change, they are arguably among the most significant challenges mankind faces in the 21st century. Additionally, the bidirectional influences of climate [...] Read more.
Non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, or depression, result from an interplay of physiological, genetic, behavioral, and environmental aspects. Together with climate change, they are arguably among the most significant challenges mankind faces in the 21st century. Additionally, the bidirectional influences of climate change and health on each other are undisputed. Behavioral changes could curb both climate change and the spread of non-communicable diseases. Much effort has been put into information campaigns in both fields, but success has been limited. In the following, the knowledge action gap is compared and analyzed in healthy and climate-friendly behavior from a practical point of view and the supporting theoretical models are highlighted. The analysis shows that self-efficacy plays an essential role in both areas of research for effecting behavioral changes. The models of ‘Planned Behavior’ and ‘Stages of Change’ seems helpful and can be applied and adapted to explain behavioral changes in health and climate changes settings. We compared two previously unrelated research fields to uncover new avenues for further study and stimulate fruitful transdisciplinary discussion. Future directions on how behavioral medicine and climate change research can learn from each other are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health Related to Climate Change)
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27 pages, 5795 KiB  
Article
A Literature Review of the Impacts of Heat Stress on Human Health across Africa
by Katlego P. Ncongwane, Joel O. Botai, Venkataraman Sivakumar and Christina M. Botai
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5312; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095312 - 10 May 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5756
Abstract
Heat stress-related illness attributed to the changing climate, particularly the more frequent extreme high temperatures, is becoming a theme of public concern, especially in the most vulnerable regions, such as the African continent. Knowledge of the existing research directions and gaps on heat [...] Read more.
Heat stress-related illness attributed to the changing climate, particularly the more frequent extreme high temperatures, is becoming a theme of public concern, especially in the most vulnerable regions, such as the African continent. Knowledge of the existing research directions and gaps on heat stress and human health is vital for informing future strategic research foci capable of influencing policy development, planning, adaptation, and mitigation efforts. In this regard, a bibliometric analysis was conducted, with an emphasis on Africa, to assess regional research contributions to heat stress impacts on human health. The goals of the study were to review publication growth and patterns of the scientific publications and to identify key players (especially collaborating institutions and countries) and the evolution of research themes on the African continent, while paying attention to global trends and emergent hot topics and methodology of heat stress research. Using the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus core collection databases, a structured keyword search was undertaken, which yielded 463 and 58 research publications from around the world and Africa, respectively. The retrieved scientific documents, published between 1968 and 2020, were analyzed and visualized using a bibliometric analysis technique and the VOSviewer software tool. The results indicate low statistics and slow scientific growth in publication output, with the highest peak having been reached in 2018, resulting in 13 scientific publications. While global research collaborations are successfully reflected in the literature, there is a considerable gap in understanding heat stress and related collaborations between African countries and international institutions. The review study has identified key opportunities that can benefit Africa through the expansion of the scope of heat stress and human health research on the continent. These opportunities can be achieved by closing the following research gaps: (1) vulnerability assessments within demographic classes, such as the elderly, (2) personal exposure and associated risks, (3) Urban Heat Island (UHI) evaluation for urban environments, and (4) heat adaptation research, which will enable informed and targeted preventive actions that will limit future heat health impacts. The authors opine that the pursuit of such studies will be most impactful if the current knowledge gaps are bridged through transdisciplinary research supported by local, regional, and international collaborators. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health Related to Climate Change)
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Review

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16 pages, 5243 KiB  
Review
Impacts of COVID-19 on a Transitioning Energy System, Society, and International Cooperation
by Andrew Chapman and Takeshi Tsuji
Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 8232; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12198232 - 06 Oct 2020
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5435
Abstract
Short term outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic have included improved air quality and reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions, while long term repercussions may include a disruption to joint international research efforts, the creation of silos, and the [...] Read more.
Short term outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic have included improved air quality and reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions, while long term repercussions may include a disruption to joint international research efforts, the creation of silos, and the potential for internalizing efforts toward national rather than global goals. In this study, we identified the impacts of reduced mobility on pollutants and emissions, the emergence of nationalist approaches and effects on international cooperation, and how these issues will affect the achievement of global carbon targets and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). COVID-19 presents a global short-term crisis and there is a demonstrated global desire and effort to develop a vaccine and effective treatments. Similarly, climate change is also a near future issue, and as a result we need to reduce CO2 emissions rapidly. This review highlights potential policy interventions, which capitalize on learnings from COVID-19, while identifying SDGs 10, 13 and 17 as critical to engendering a successful, cooperative transition toward sustainability. The recognition of the earth as a closed system, demonstrated by the shared impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, may encourage positive future effects on cooperative approaches toward mitigating climate change, another looming crisis for humanity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Public Health Related to Climate Change)
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