What is CATCH?
Community Adaptations To City Heat – Making extreme heat impacts visible in frontline communities in Boston, Phoenix, and New Orleans. Funded by a Climate Impact Award from Wellcome Foundation.
The CATCH project is working to:
- Raise visibility of the adverse impacts of extreme temperatures on health
- Deliver tools for decision makers to quantify extreme heat impacts on health, and
- Create pathways to connect siloed policies to improve heat related exposure and health impacts in frontline communities (frontline= bear the first and worst impacts of climate change)
Why Boston, Phoenix, and New Orleans?
These three cities experience significant urban heat intensity and are indifferent climate zones, representing three different types of urban heat:
- Boston – A city experiencing increased heat, with building infrastructure designed to keep heat in during cold winters
- Phoenix – A city that is extremely hot and dry almost year round
- New Orleans – A city that is extremely hot and humid almost year round
Leaders in these cities have demonstrated strong commitment to climate action, energy efficiency, and environmental justice for vulnerable populations. Additionally, we have strong relationships with city and local organizations.
Meet the CATCH team
We are a transdisciplinary team based out of Boston University, with partners at Dialogue Earth, A Better City, and Iseechange, experienced in community engaged climate and health research and communications, data and maps for decisions, and multi-city partnerships.
FACULTY & COLLABORATORS
- Patricia Fabian – Principal Investigator, Department of Environmental Health and Institute for Global Sustainability
- Caroline Reed – Iseechange
- Daniel Cressey – Dialogue Earth
- Elaine Bertolini – Research Program Manager, Department of Environmental Health
- Gregory Wellenius, Center for Climate and Health, Department of Environmental Health
- Ian Sue Wing, Department of Earth and Environment
- Isabella Gambill – A Better City
- Jessica Leibler, Department of Environmental Health
- Julia Kumari Drapkin – Iseechange
- Lucy Hutyra, Department of Earth and Environment, URBAN
- Madeleine Scammell, Department of Environmental Health
- Sam Geall – Dialogue Earth
- Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, Department of Health Law, Policy and Management, BU Initiative on Cities
RESEARCH STAFF
- Chad Milando – Research Scientist, Center for Climate and Health
- Jinho Lee – Postdoc, Department of Environmental Health
- Priam Vyas – Research Data Analyst
- Rebecca Pearl-Martinez – Research Translation, Institute for Global Sustainability
- Yirong Yuan – Research Data Analyst
STUDENTS
- Beverly Ge – Doctoral Student, department of Environmental Health
- Jonathan Lee – Doctoral Student, department of Environmental Health
- Naomi Frim-Abrams – MS Student
- Selene Vences – Doctoral Student, department of Environmental Health
- Xiaofei Qin – Doctoral Student, department of Earth and Environment
Funded By
Contact Us
Are you a municipal party, community-based organization, neighborhood group, or other stakeholder in Boston, New Orleans, or Phoenix working or concerned about extreme heat in your area? We’d love to chat. Reach out to us through our LinkedIn or the email below.
Email: cityheat@bu.edu