C3S European health service (under development)

Health will, in all likelihood, be strongly impacted by climate change. For example, the mortality associated with heat waves is expected to increase considerably, and city dwellers are particularly in danger, as the urban heat-island effect exacerbates thermal stress. Conversely, the impact of cold spells is expected to decrease. Climate change is also expected to affect the incidence, outbreak frequency, and distribution of many infectious diseases, mainly because of an altered distribution of infectious disease vectors. Similarly, it is expected that the geographic distribution of allergenic pollen in Europe, as well as the start/end and intensity of the pollen season, will be altered.

The European Health Service will exploit the full range of climate information contained in the Climate Data Store, including historic climate information from the ERA5 reanalysis dataset, future climate projections from CMIP5 and Euro-Cordex initiatives, and seasonal forecasts. It will provide high-resolution urban climate data for 100 European cities. These data will include a snapshot of temperature distribution and other climate variables, focusing on so-called heat islands – urban areas that are warmer than their rural surroundings due to human factors such as roads, buildings and depletion of vegetation.

Accessing data from the Climate Data Store, and combining those with generic and user-defined ancillary information (including socio-economic and land-cover related data), the service will deliver evidence regarding health impacts of past, present, and future climate, thus providing support to decision-making challenges that are currently facing unmet climate data needs.

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