Heat vulnerability, climate readiness, and health outcomes: linking anticipatory adaptation in Urban Korea

ABSTRACT

Can climate policy efforts with proactive health adaptation be helpful to mitigate the adverse impacts of heat events? In this work, we identify the relationships between heat vulnerability and health outcomes and articulate the potential role of anticipatory adaptation in reducing the vulnerability to heat events within major cities of Korea over a recent five-year period (2010–2015). From the perspectives of vulnerability-readiness nexus and anticipatory adaptation, our work integrates heat vulnerability with health outcomes that assist in accounting for climate adaptation policy efforts using a quantitative approach. Our results suggest that positive associations exist between heat vulnerability and health outcomes. Further, high levels of anticipatory adaptation and climate readiness can play crucial roles in mitigating the negative effects of heat events and enhancing health adaptation.

KEYWORDS:

• Anticipatory adaptation
• climate policy
• health adaptation
• health outcomes
• vulnerability-readiness nexus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2020S1A5A2A03043565].

Notes on contributors

Hyun Kim

Hyun Kim is an associate professor of Public Administration at Chungnam National University in South Korea. His research interests include urban and environmental planning and policy, climate policy, urban regeneration and gentrification, urban governance, policy innovation, science-policy integration, and mixed methods.

Hyewon Kim

Hyewon Kim is a doctoral student of Public Administration at Chungnam National University in South Korea. Her research, primarily based in mixed methods focuses on urban regeneration policy and planning, urban governance, policy innovation, environmental policy, and social dimensions of climate change

Kyle Maurice Woosnam

Dr. Kyle Maurice Woosnam is professor within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. His research centers on natural resource management, community and regional development and planning, and sustainable tourism.

Chul-Hee Lim

Chul-Hee Lim is an assistant professor of climate change and geoinformatics at the College of General Education, Kookmin University, Republic of Korea. His research focuses on climate risk assessment, spatial analysis, remote sensing for environmental monitoring, carbon-neutral evaluation, and ecosystem services.

Gyu Seomun

Gyu Seomun is a master student of Environmental Planning at Seoul National University in South Korea. His research mainly focuses on urban regeneration and gentrification, environmental planning and policy, urban climate change resilience and climate policy, and mixed methods.