This book provides a theoretical framework and related technical skills for investigating climate change and its public health consequences and responses with a focus on urban settings, and in particular Hong Kong, a subtropical metropolis in Asia. Specifically, the book examines the impact of climate change on health in terms of mortality, hospital admissions and help-seeking, as well as key response strategies of adaptation and mitigation. Many existing books tend to consider the relationship of climate change and public health as two connected issues divided into various discrete topics. Conversely, this book explicitly applies public health concepts to study the human impact of climate change, for example, by conceptualising climate change impact and its alleviation, mitigation and adaptation in a public health framework. Overall, this volume summarises what is known about climate change and health and ignites further debates in the area, especially for urban subtropical communities from within a wider global perspective. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental health, public health, climate change, urban studies and Asian studies.

This book presents the health emergency and disaster risk management (H-EDRM) research landscape, with examples from Asia. In recent years, the intersection of health and disaster risk reduction (DRR) has emerged as an important interdisciplinary field. In several landmark UN agreements adopted in 2015-2016, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris climate agreement, and the New Urban Agenda (Habitat III), health is acknowledged as an inevitable outcome and a natural goal of disaster risk reduction, and the cross-over of the two fields is essential for the successful implementation of the Sendai Framework. H-EDRM has emerged as an umbrella field that encompasses emergency and disaster medicine, DRR, humanitarian response, community health resilience, and health system resilience. However, this fragmented, nascent field has yet to be developed into a coherent discipline. Key challenges include redundant research, lack of a strategic research agenda, limited development of multisectoral and interdisciplinary approaches, deficiencies in the science-policy-practice nexus, absence of standardized terminology, and insufficient coordination among stakeholders. This book provides a timely and invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, scholars, and frontline practitioners as well as policymakers from across the component domains of H-EDRM.

This book provides a theoretical framework and related technical skills for investigating climate change and its public health consequences and responses with a focus on urban settings, and in particular Hong Kong, a subtropical metropolis in Asia. Specifically, the book examines the impact of climate change on health in terms of mortality, hospital admissions and help-seeking, as well as key response strategies of adaptation and mitigation. Many existing books tend to consider the relationship of climate change and public health as two connected issues divided into various discrete topics. Conversely, this book explicitly applies public health concepts to study the human impact of climate change, for example, by conceptualising climate change impact and its alleviation, mitigation and adaptation in a public health framework. Overall, this volume summarises what is known about climate change and health and ignites further debates in the area, especially for urban subtropical communities from within a wider global perspective. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental health, public health, climate change, urban studies and Asian studies.

Disaster Public Health and Older People introduces professionals, students and fieldworkers to the science and art of promoting health and well-being among older people in the context of humanitarian emergencies, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income country settings. Older people face specific vulnerabilities in physical, mental and social well-being during disasters. They are likely to experience socio-economic marginalisation, isolation, inaccessible information and a lack of relevant post-emergency support services. Meanwhile, although older people can also significantly contribute to disaster preparedness, response and recovery, their capacities are often under-utilised. Drawing on a range of global case studies, this book provides readers with a theoretical underpinning, while suggesting actions at the individual, community and national levels to reduce the health risks to older people posed by the increasing frequency and intensity of disaster, in particular those resulting from natural hazards. Topics covered range from the health impact of disasters on older people and response to their post-disaster health needs, to disaster preparedness, disease prevention, healthy ageing, global policy developments and the contributions of older people in disaster contexts. This book draws on lessons learnt from previous disasters and targets students and professionals working in disaster medicine, disaster public health, humanitarian studies, gerontology and geriatrics.

Disaster Public Health and Older People introduces professionals, students and fieldworkers to the science and art of promoting health and well-being among older people in the context of humanitarian emergencies, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income country settings. Older people face specific vulnerabilities in physical, mental and social well-being during disasters. They are likely to experience socio-economic marginalisation, isolation, inaccessible information and a lack of relevant post-emergency support services. Meanwhile, although older people can also significantly contribute to disaster preparedness, response and recovery, their capacities are often under-utilised. Drawing on a range of global case studies, this book provides readers with a theoretical underpinning, while suggesting actions at the individual, community and national levels to reduce the health risks to older people posed by the increasing frequency and intensity of disaster, in particular those resulting from natural hazards. Topics covered range from the health impact of disasters on older people and response to their post-disaster health needs, to disaster preparedness, disease prevention, healthy ageing, global policy developments and the contributions of older people in disaster contexts. This book draws on lessons learnt from previous disasters and targets students and professionals working in disaster medicine, disaster public health, humanitarian studies, gerontology and geriatrics.

This book presents the health emergency and disaster risk management (H-EDRM) research landscape, with examples from Asia. In recent years, the intersection of health and disaster risk reduction (DRR) has emerged as an important interdisciplinary field. In several landmark UN agreements adopted in 2015-2016, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris climate agreement, and the New Urban Agenda (Habitat III), health is acknowledged as an inevitable outcome and a natural goal of disaster risk reduction, and the cross-over of the two fields is essential for the successful implementation of the Sendai Framework. H-EDRM has emerged as an umbrella field that encompasses emergency and disaster medicine, DRR, humanitarian response, community health resilience, and health system resilience. However, this fragmented, nascent field has yet to be developed into a coherent discipline. Key challenges include redundant research, lack of a strategic research agenda, limited development of multisectoral and interdisciplinary approaches, deficiencies in the science-policy-practice nexus, absence of standardized terminology, and insufficient coordination among stakeholders. This book provides a timely and invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, scholars, and frontline practitioners as well as policymakers from across the component domains of H-EDRM.

The aim of health protection is to prevent and manage outbreaks of communicable and environmental diseases, and to make us better at responding to emergencies and disasters. This includes working with diseases and injuries from environmental hazard exposures and climate change. Essentials for Health Protection: Four Key Components is a guide to the reality of the field, and a discussion of how we can improve our present and future. Based on public health theories and illustrated by relevant examples, this book is founded on the experience gained from the long-established CCOUC Ethnic Minority Health Project in China. It covers the four key areas identified by the Commonwealth Secretariat in its 'Health Protection Policy Toolkit'; climate change adaptation and mitigation, communicable disease control, emergency preparedness, and environmental health. With the aim to strengthen regional, subnational, national and global health protection, it also looks at health impact assessment in these areas. Discussing the health protection spectrum from mitigation, interventions and response, this book is a current and comprehensive guide to the field. Looking forwards, it discusses the latest controversies and dynamics and how they might change the reality of health protection practices and development. Essentials for Health Protection: Four Key Components is the ideal introductory to intermediate level textbook and reference book for healthcare professionals, fieldworkers, volunteers and students who are interested in promoting health and emergency and disaster risk reduction.

As a backdrop of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2016-2030), the United Nations pointed out that more than 6 million children still died before the age of five by 2015. At least 1.8 billion people across the world still consumed fecally contaminated drinking water and 2.4 million lacked access to basic sanitation services such as toilets or latrines, while nearly 1,000 children died every day of preventable water and sanitation-related diarrhoeal diseases. Rural areas fare far worse: Children in rural areas are about 1.7 times more likely to die before their fifth birthday as those in urban areas. About 16 per cent of the rural population do not use improved drinking water sources, compared to 4 per cent of the urban population. About 50 per cent of people living in rural areas lack improved sanitation facilities, compared to only 18 per cent of people in urban areas. Far too many one-off rural on-site public health knowledge transfer projects fail to deliver results in the long run, and the knowledge in question cannot be retained in the rural communities after the NGO and development workers are gone. In addition to external constraints, this is often due to a lack of theoretical understanding among NGO practitioners and volunteers and basis for evaluation and improvement of health relief programmes. Based on public health theories and illustrated by relevant examples, this book introduces how health, emergency and disaster preparedness education programmes could be organised in remote rural Asia, which could become useful reference materials for organisers and volunteers of rural development projects. This book is an introductory to intermediate level textbook and reference book for healthcare professionals, fieldworkers, volunteers and students who are interested in promoting health and emergency and disaster risk reduction. The book is developed from the experience and insights gained from the long-established CCOUC Ethnic Minority Health Project in China. It also incorporates new lessons from CCOUC's recent projects in Asia countries like Bhutan, Nepal and Democratic People's Republic of Korea.