Developing a Heat Vulnerability Indicator in Australia Incorporating Health Outcome and Built Environment Data

Extreme heat poses a major threat to population health. Heatwave frequency, magnitude and duration are expected to increase through climate change, requiring resilient planning to mitigate the effects of heat on vulnerable populations and to prepare the health system for the impact of intense heat exposure in the future.

Existing heat vulnerability indicators do not include linked health data at a fine spatial level and do not consider urban morphology properties that are now known to be important in the assessment of population vulnerability to extreme heat. This study aims to produce a finelevel Heat Health Vulnerability Indicator (HHVI) that integrates linked population health data, demographic determinants, environment, and urban morphology parameters into weighted spatial layers of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity.

The resulting spatial indicator identifies areas that are vulnerable to extreme heat, along with the associated human health outcomes and the potential mitigating or amplifying effect of the built environment. A case study for the state of New South Wales, Australia, highlights the indicator’s suitability to inform future planning decisions that lead to improved health and habitat interventions for climate-resilient cities.