About our Network

The Global Heat Health Information Network is an independent, voluntary, and member-driven forum of scientists, practitioners, and policy makers focused on improving capacity to protect populations from the avoidable health risks of extreme heat in our changing climate.

It was created to help rapidly scale up efforts to manage the complex human health risks introduced by extreme and increasing ambient heat, and to harmonize and improve information and opportunity sharing across the burgeoning local communities of health professionals, decision makers and scientists motivated to address this issue.

The Network is working toward five common goals:

to urgently improve awareness of the disaster that increasing extreme heat pose to human health, wellbeing, and productivity worldwide;
to catalyze and sustain interdisciplinary partnerships and co-learning between research and practitioners across relevant government, academic, private sector and civil society actors;
to synthesize and advance science and technology available for decision-making and risk reduction across sectors and time scales;
to improve access to expert resources and opportunities for learning, exchange, and engagement;
to identify and accelerate action to address critical gaps in research, knowledge and practice.

Our Vision

Improved capacity of professionals, organizations, and governments to protect populations from the preventable health impacts of extreme ambient heat.

The network aims to create a common space to promote evidence-driven interventions, shared-learning, co-production of information, synthesis of priorities, and capacity building that can empower multi-disciplinary actors to take more effective and informed life-saving preparedness and planning measures.

It seeks to be a catalyst, knowledge broker and forum for facilitating exchange and identifying needs of the most vulnerable.

How We Work

The Network brings together the work and progress of its members to create a holistic picture of the needs, science and strengths to:

rapidly scale up efforts to manage the complex human health risks introduced by extreme and increasing ambient heat;
harmonize and improve information and opportunity sharing across the burgeoning local communities of health professionals, decision makers and scientists motivated to address this issue.

Activities

The Network’s activities help improve the capacity of governments, organizations, and professionals to protect populations from the avoidable health risks of extreme ambient heat. Members and the wider public benefit from ongoing activities, including:

Biennial Global Forum on Heat and Health
Learning and Exchange Events: masterclasses, dialogues, regional events and trainings
Synthesis reports and resources on heat health via our website, including inventories of Heat Health Action Plans and case studies; COVID-19 and Heat Guidance;
Communications: News, information and social media, Global Heat Health Digest, publications

5 Pillars of Integrated Heat Health Action

Our Networks' pillars support coordinated information and action to reduce the impact of heat on health worldwide.

5 Pillars of Integrated Heat Health Action

Pillar and Rationale	Network Role	Priority Issues
1. Partnerships and Capacity Building To address the multifaceted and multidimensional risks extreme heat poses for health, building capacity to develop and drive diverse partnerships from global and local levels is critically needed.	The Network supports partnership development and interdisciplinary capacity building and collaboration at local to global levels, including through human and institutional training opportunities, inter-institutional and interdisciplinary coordination and partnerships. Tool tip Find out more: explore learning opportunities.	Institutional capacity Partnerships Training Coordination models
2. Heat Vulnerability and Impact Science Strong data and research are needed to understand and monitor the health vulnerabilities and risks of ambient heat in our changing climate.	The Network supports actions (methods, data, research) that enhance knowledge on human vulnerability and impacts of extreme ambient heat, including heat impact metrics, surveillance systems, research and operational systems for monitoring and modelling heat-health risks, research and knowledge gaps. Tool tip Find out more about heat and health	Vulnerability studies Impact metrics and surveillance Impact Thresholds Epidemiological Studies Behavioral and risk perception studies Physiological studies Cascading environmental risk modelling Research gaps
3. Heat Prediction and Services Accurate and timely climate and weather information is necessary to enable effective decision making and action to protect health and save lives.	The Network supports actions to enhance operational heat risk monitoring, characterization, prediction, and warning systems across timescales, including epidemiological impact forecasting; biometeorological indices, Urban Heat Island monitoring and modelling; and operational early warning systems. Tool tip Find out more about when and where heat is dangerous, and how it's measured and monitored.	Meteorological Observations Forecasts and Outlooks Heat Indices Heat Health Early Warning Systems Urban Climate/UHI
4. Interventions Appropriate interventions across multiple sectors and time-scales can prevent heat exposure and negative health outcomes.	The Network supports evidence based interventions across multiple sectors, actors, and time-scales to accelerate necessary action. This includes a vast range of interventions such as, policy and legislation, action planning and coordination, public health prevention, and awareness of personal behaviors and choices to minimize heat risks. Tool tip Find out more about what actions can be taken to manage and adapt to heat in various contexts here.	Inventory of evidence-based action Policy and legislation Pilot Projects Heat Health Action Plans Prevention and Preparedness Cooling and Heat Mitigation Evaluation
5. Communications and Outreach Effective risk communication and outreach play a key role improving awareness of the risk that hot weather poses to human health, wellbeing, and productivity worldwide.	The Network supports the identification of key messages and good practices for increasing awareness and communicating heat health risks to diverse audiences and various audiences including clinical medicine, public health, urban planning, academia, and meteorology. Tool tip Find out more about advocacy and risk communications for heat health.	Advocacy; Risk Communication; Advisory Systems; Evidence based Messages; Good Practices

Background

The Network was initiated in June 2016 by experts from over a dozen founding institutions to respond to the urgent need to scale preventive heat action and repeated calls for harmonization and improvement of our common understanding and decision tools to manage health risks of extreme heat. The Network officially launched with a call to action in December 2018 at the First Global Forum for Heat and Health. It is spearheaded by the World Health Organization and World Meteorological Organization Joint Office for Climate and Health, and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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Our Members

Diverse expertise and perspectives: Our members self-select, enhancing active inclusion of a broad range of organizations and professionals from around the world.

Compatible motivation: The mission and values of our members are expected to be compatible with the Network vision.

Scientific integrity and shared principles: Members are encouraged to uphold scientific integrity and principles of good public health practice.

This includes organizations and professionals from: