ClimateRes

Bushfire smoke and heatwaves increasingly threaten population health, especially among vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, pregnant women, people with disabilities or comorbidities, and low-income households. These risks are projected to intensify with climate change, particularly in urban areas affected by heat islands, poor housing, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Community resilience centres—cool, clean-air spaces in public buildings—offer a promising yet under-evaluated intervention. This interdisciplinary, community co-designed project will assess their effectiveness in reducing exposure to heat and smoke, potential health benefits and costs, and associated implementation challenges. The project focuses on fast-growing, high-risk suburbs in Western Sydney and Canberra to inform scalable, evidence-based public health strategies.

For more information, please visit the HEAL Network projects

Researchers

University of Canberra:

Sotiris Vardoulakis (HEAL GRC, University of Canberra), Syeda Hira Fatima (HEAL GRC, University of Canberra), Nigel Goodman (HEAL GRC, University of Canberra), Itismita Mohanty (Health Research Institute, University of Canberra), Nasser Bagheri (Health Research Institute, University of Canberra) Julien Perriard (University of Canberra), Brad Clarke (University of Canberra),

External Researchers:

Guy Marks (Burnet Institute), Christine Cowie (Woolcock Institute), Amanda Wheeler (CSIRO), Abby Mallik Lopes (UTS), Cameron Tonkinwise (UTS), Veronica Matthews (University of Sydney), Geoffrey Morgan (University of Sydney), Shamila Hadad (University of Sydney), Bin Jalaludin (UNSW), Mat Santamouris (UNSW), Konstantina Vasilakopoulou (UNSW), Sharon Campbell (University of Tasmania)

Project Partners

University of Canberra, Burnet Institute, Woolcock Institute, CSIRO, UTS, University of Sydney, UNSW, University of Tasmania

Project Funders

NHMRC