Research
The Climate and Health Interdisciplinary Research Programme (CHIRP) at Leeds is based in the Priestly International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. CHIRP@LEEDS is a joint collaboration across the climate and global health themes, and partners the Leeds School of Earth and Environment, and the Leeds Institute for Health Sciences, including the Nuffield Centre for Global Health and Development. Led by Professor Lea Berrang-Ford, the programme integrates interdisciplinary expertise across Leeds faculties, including strengths in public health, epidemiology, medicine, engineering, climate science, nutrition, and geography.
About the Lab
The Berrang-Ford lab within CHIRP@LEEDS focuses on the climate change vulnerability, adaptation, and social gradients in health, primarily in the global south. Lab members employ mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods to tackle climate and health challenges, and also to cross-fertilise systematic and comparative health methods into research methods for social climate policy.
Climate & Health in Vulnerable Populations
I am currently Co-PI on the $2.5M IHACC 2.0 project (Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate change), funded by the IDRC and tri-councils IRIACC program. This international, interdisciplinary project aims to identify and characterize the vulnerability of Indigenous health systems to climate change and develop interventions to promote adaptation. The work involves participatory research with community partners in the Peruvian Amazon (Shawi communities), Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda (Batwa pygmy communities), and the Canadian Arctic (Inuit), and close collaboration with researchers from the same areas. IHACC 2.0 has recently launched, following the 5 year original project. The second iteration is following up on and building off of longitudinal health surveys, qualitative health systems and vulnerability assessments, as well as policy reviews.
Visit the IHACC website, or click here to watch a short video on the project.
Visit the IHACC website, or click here to watch a short video on the project.
Tracking Climate Change Adaptations
This research program is developing novel methods to track adaptation action in different sectors and at different scales, with a focus on adaptation to the health impacts of climate change. The goal of the research is to apply systematic mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) to evaluate progress and policies on global adaptation. Research projects to date have included a systematic quantitative literature review of peer-reviewed evidence of global adaptation, systematic policy analysis of national adaptations in the health sector, review of participation in health adaptation by NGOs, and characterization of adaptation in the Ontario health sector.
The Tracking Research on Adaptation to Climate Change Consortium, TRAC3, was launched in 2014 to link a growing network of researchers working to advance approaches for tracking progress on adaption to the impacts of climate change.TRAC3 was created to facilitate new collaborations that address conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges associated with tracking progress on adaptation around the world. TRAC3 was founded by Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford, Dr. James Ford, and Dr. Robbert Biesboek. Follow Trac3 on twitter @tradacptcc or click here to be redirected TRAC3’s main website.
The Tracking Research on Adaptation to Climate Change Consortium, TRAC3, was launched in 2014 to link a growing network of researchers working to advance approaches for tracking progress on adaption to the impacts of climate change.TRAC3 was created to facilitate new collaborations that address conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges associated with tracking progress on adaptation around the world. TRAC3 was founded by Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford, Dr. James Ford, and Dr. Robbert Biesboek. Follow Trac3 on twitter @tradacptcc or click here to be redirected TRAC3’s main website.
Environmental Determinants of Vectorborne & Zoonotic Diseases
Vector-borne diseases are known to be highly climate sensitive. Projected changes in climate are expected to have implications for the potential range distributions of vectors and pathogens of public health importance. Within this research program, we have conducted projects in Canada and Peru. Our research team completed an evaluation of the changing risks of vector-borne diseases in Canada. These projects focused on collection of existing data on vector and pathogens species distributions, as well as ecological determinants such as climate and land cover. Ecological niche modeling and spatial analysis were used to determine the spatial and temporal determinants of species ranges in order to develop species maps. Downscaled climate projection data were used to project scenarios of potential changes in range distributions. In Peru, our research focused on an epidemiologic analysis of historical incidence of infectious disease and sea surface temperature data to evaluate long-term national and sub-national epidemiologic associations. The project aimed to evaluate the extent to which disease incidence in Peru has been determined by variations in climate, with a focus on leishmaniasis and dengue.
Additionally, I participated in research evaluating the determinants of T.b. rhodesiense sleeping sickness incidence in Uganda. This research involved a number of projects, including spatio-temporal analysis of historic disease spread and associations with land cover and analysis of conflict as a determinant of disease at the national and continental levels. My lab researched the burden of sleeping sickness using the DALY measure (Disability Adjusted Life Years) for Uganda, with particular interest in how burden estimates are different across scales and how zoonotic diseases are considered in burden analyses.
Additionally, I participated in research evaluating the determinants of T.b. rhodesiense sleeping sickness incidence in Uganda. This research involved a number of projects, including spatio-temporal analysis of historic disease spread and associations with land cover and analysis of conflict as a determinant of disease at the national and continental levels. My lab researched the burden of sleeping sickness using the DALY measure (Disability Adjusted Life Years) for Uganda, with particular interest in how burden estimates are different across scales and how zoonotic diseases are considered in burden analyses.