Climate Care Toronto (TO)
Climate Care TO is a CIHR-funded digital citizen science initiative which aims to address adverse climate change impacts on health. In collaboration with the Toronto Climate Action Network (TCAN), this initiative works with underserved communities in Toronto to understand and respond to health risks from extreme weather events including heatwaves and flooding.
Digital citizen science is an approach that ethically engages citizens via their own digital devices. Using a custom-built progressive web application, citizens can report on environmental hazards, extreme weather events, and related health issues (i.e., heat stroke) in their communities. The app is linked to environment and weather databases, and uses artificial intelligence to anonymize and aggregate both citizen with environmental data to provide communities with real-time support to manage their health risks.
This project focuses on the following Sustainable Development Goals:
SDG 3 (Good health & well-being)
SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities)
SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities)
SDG 13 (Climate action)
Low resource communities in Toronto face the burden of health challenges, which are exacerbated during extreme climate events. Coping with severe heat, poor air quality, threats to food and water supply, and vector-borne disease risk is especially challenging for low-resource communities. In line with the objective of SDG 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, Climate Care TO will leverage digital citizen science to address communicable diseases (3.3), reduce mortality from non-communicable diseases, promote mental health (3.4), and equitably improve health outcomes in these communities overall.
Extreme weather events, severe rainfall, heat waves, and the urban heat island effect can also disrupt infrastructure and essential services, which affects citizens’ livelihoods. This increase in environmental hazards may also lead to a higher risk of property damage due to extreme weather, flooding, and fires. These impacts disproportionally affect low-income and racialized communities in urban settings, contributing to social exclusion and economic disparities (SDGs 10, 11, and 13).
Climate Care TO seeks to advance these SDGs and their targets through digital citizen science including promotion of universal social, economic, and political inclusion (10.2), equal opportunities (10.3), reducing the adverse effects of natural disasters (11.5), reducing the environmental impact of cities (11.6).
