◈ 기후변화는 모든 보건의료정책의 결과와 영향을 평가하는 주요 기준 중의 하나로 설정되어야 함. 기후변화 적응 연구는 정책설정 및 추진에서 핵심적인 요소이며 기후변화 적응 전 과정을 뒷받침하는 근거를 제시함. ◈ 건강 및 보건 분야 이외에 범죄발생, 실업(또는 고용), 교육, 인구이동 등에 대한 기후변화의 영향이 연구주제로 포괄되고 지역사회 차원에서 적응력 증진을 위한 자료수집, 적응력 개선 방법, 정부, 지방정부의 지역사회 지원 방안 등에 대한 연구를 수행함. 또한 기존의 적응대책의 영향을 평가하고 비공공부문(민간기업, NGO, 지역사회 등)에 의한 기후변화 적응 대책의 시행 영향을 평가함. ◈ 연구의 발전단계별 연구방향에 맞추어 연차별 주요 연구주제를 선정하였으며, 향후 3년간의 연차별 주요 연구주제와 연구의 주요 내용은 다음 표와 같음.
Climate change will have significant physical, mental impacts and the quality of life. In particular, climate change will affect people's access to basic goods and services such as water, shelter and food, as well as other key priorities for human wellbeing such as education, employment and protection from crime. Evidence shows that not only are the deprived people often more exposed to specific climate change impacts, they are also more vulnerable to those impacts. Climate change will widen existing inequalities. The purpose of this study is twofold. One is to model a peoples vulnerability to climate change focused on health, and the other is to explore the association between climate change and the morbidity and mortality of diseases. The vulnerability assessment framework of climate change focused on health consists of six layers, which are based on the principle of IPCC vulnerability concepts (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) and the pathway of direct and indirect impacts of climate change modulators on health. IPCC indicated the modulators as environments, social conditions, and health systems. The first layer of vulnerability assessment model is climate factors such as the future change of temperature, precipitation, and humidity and their variabilities. The second layer is the magnitude and distribution of climate change related to diseases. The third one is environmental factors, which are associated with diseases prevalence, and is composed of natural environment such as ozone condition, ecological system, vegetation area and man-made environment like heat island, housing condition, and land-use alteration. The fourth layer is vulnerable population distribution of climate change. We follow the SNIFFER classification of climate change vulnerability framework (SNIFFER reported that vulnerable people are likely to be those who live in the area at risk, being socially deprived and disempowered). The fifth layer describes social conditions, which are associated with social resources and upstream determinants of health. The final layer of vulnerability model is the health system. In particular, public health initiatives are crucial to the success of adaptation policy and community mobilizing. Despite of several experiments and studies regarding the development of climate change adaptation strategy on municipal level, the vulnerability research and practice is just the beginning. This is mainly due to the uncertainty of effects of adaptation process on health, and the assessment of vulnerability of climate change needs long-term approach and continuous improvement and compensation.
