Abstract Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of weather-related extreme events, exposing several populations to risk. Climate change coping strategies need to consider the crucial role played by the behavior adopted by people. However, behavior is affected by perception, which is influenced by many factors: awareness and knowledge, trust in institutions, good communication and information, gender differences, territorial characteristics, and even having experienced a previous disaster. Since climate change adaptation policies often include nonstructural measures that address the social aspects of communities, understanding public perception of climate change is essential. However, in Italy, studies covering the national level remain underrepresented. To fill this gap, a nationwide survey on climate change perception was conducted. Data were collected by administering structured surveys to a sample of the Italian population older than 16 years and then weighted to be representative of the overall sample. The results refer to 1310 surveys analyzed at three subsequent levels: five Italian territorial macro-areas (North-West, North-East, Center, South, Islands), gender and age-groups. The analyses addressed specific topics, such as awareness of climate change, trust in information and decision-makers, and levels individual and social engagement. The findings revealed significant differences across regions and the demographic groups. These differences provide a fundamental basis for more accurately calibrating climate change adaptation policies aimed at increasing the resilience of the Italian population. These insights underscore the importance of context-sensitive climate communication and policy design, with implications for similarly diverse and multi-regional settings worldwide.

Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related event in the United States, but it is not regarded with the same urgency as other natural disasters. By 2050, Los Angeles is expected to experience about three times as many extreme heat days compared to today, which will likely disproportionately affect environmental justice communities. One barrier to mitigating heat-related vulnerability in frontline communities is a lack of awareness of available resources and adaptation strategies. The Prioritizing Local Action for Climate Equity study aims to bridge this knowledge gap through the usage of maps and map-based presentations in three Los Angeles environmental justice neighborhoods: Pacoima, South Los Angeles, and Wilmington. Particularly, printout maps were utilized during the study’s “Heat and Health” workshops as educational and discussion tools. In addition, a collection of ArcGIS StoryMaps was created to share heat resources and information related to heat vulnerability online. These StoryMaps were developed through an iterative process that integrated feedback from community partners, ensuring that the created tools are relevant to and address the needs of residents. The printout maps proved to be useful discussion tools and enabled the team to gain a deeper understanding of what resources are utilized during heat events. While community partners thought that the StoryMaps were informative and can serve as an educational tool about extreme heat and mitigation strategies, they identified opportunities for improvement, such as enhancing their utility in emergency situations regarding length and display limitations of the StoryMaps on mobile phones.

The purpose of this article is to enhance a person-centered approach in case management, disability management, and allied disciplines by taking into account the environmental factors affecting people's physical, mental, and emotional health. Drawing from recent research, as well as the example of health support for agriculture producers and workers, the article underscores the weather-related risks that impact people because of where and how they live and work. The article addresses professional case managers and allied professionals such as disability management specialists in a variety of settings, including acute care, subacute/rehabilitation, workers' compensation, occupational health and safety, primary care, and community-based care. In response to evidence of the rising health risks from weather-related events, professional case managers should expand how they assess individuals (known as "patients" in some settings) to identify their existing and potential risk factors, including where people live and work and the weather-related risks that may be present in those environments. A case management assessment of an individual's weather-related health risks could not only inform a particular treatment episode but also help avoid preventable setbacks and recurrence of illnesses. If those risks are not addressed, they could lead to costly emergency department visits and/or hospitalization.

Sustainability is now a core business imperative in commercial real estate, driven by evolving regulations, disclosure requirements, rising operating expenses and market demand. With 30 jurisdictions representing 57 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) implementing International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)-aligned climate disclosure rules, transparency is becoming the norm.1 Green building standards and energy regulations are accelerating the shift to low-carbon, high-performance assets, with 96 per cent of real estate investment trusts (REITs) now disclosing sustainability data, up from 75 per cent in 2020. Investors and tenants favour sustainable, efficient and healthy properties, leading to higher rental premiums, lower vacancy rates and stronger asset values, while rising insurance costs and weather-related events highlight the need for resilience-focused retrofits. Regardless of political shifts, sustainability remains a financial and strategic necessity, ensuring cost savings, regulatory compliance and long-term value preservation and creation for proactive real estate leaders. There is an urgency to act now to understand commercial real estate firms’ sustainability performance and to embed sustainability-related risk management into core decision-making practices. Failing to do so means firms could fall behind, further exposing them to financial, regulatory and market threats, which could include owning assets that face obsolescence. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.

Background: Climate change is intensifying and poses an increased threat to health. However, limited attention has been paid to the social patterning of exposure to extreme weather events, specifically among socially marginalized communities such as people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, those in rural areas, and racialized minorities. Methods: Data from the 2023 California Health Interview Survey, a survey of California adults, were used to examine if exposure to any extreme weather events varied across a range of sociodemographic and health-related characteristics (e.g., sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, gender, rurality, have any health conditions), and if these exposures to these weather-related events were associated with physical or mental health impacts for anyone in the household. Multivariable logistic regression models were used. Results: Respondents who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, bisexual and pansexual, lower income, completed some college or more, living in rural areas, had a health condition, having experienced psychological distress, or had a disability had higher odds of reporting that someone in their household had experienced an extreme weather event. In terms of health harm from weather events, bisexual people, pansexual people, transgender people, people with disabilities, people with health conditions, and those living in rural areas were more likely to experience harm. Discussion: Human-fueled climate change is set to have devastating impacts on health in the coming decades. This study suggests that these impacts will disproportionately fall on structurally marginalized communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a dramatic shift in outdoor recreational behavior, particularly an increase in domestic hiking due to international travel restrictions. While hiking offers physical and mental health benefits, the pandemic-induced shifts in recreational behavior may have led to changes in the profile of mountain incidents. However, few studies have systematically examined how the characteristics and causes of mountain rescue operations (MROs) have changed before and after the pandemic. We aimed to fill this research gap by analyzing pre-pandemic and pandemic mountain incident data in Taiwan to identify key changes in victim demographics, injury patterns, and rescue needs, providing insights for improving emergency response systems and public safety education. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 783 documented MROs involving 965 victims in three major Taiwanese national parks. The study period was divided into two distinct phases: the pre-pandemic period from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019, and the pandemic period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022. The data were obtained from standardized incident report forms completed by medical and rescue personnel. These forms included information on victim demographics, reasons for rescue, medical conditions, and rescue methods. Incidence rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and appropriate tests (Fisher's exact test, t-test) were used to compare categorical and continuous variables. A total of 965 mountain rescue incidents were recorded among 1,427,403 trekkers, with a significantly higher incidence during the pandemic period compared with the pre-pandemic period (76.3 vs. 56.1 per 100,000 trekkers; IRR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.19-1.55, P < 0.001). Female trekkers accounted for a greater proportion of rescues during the pandemic (46.1% vs. 30.0%), with a 94% relative increase in incidence (IRR = 1.94, 95% CI: 1.55-2.43, P < 0.001). Injury-related incidents increased significantly (IRR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.19-1.89, P < 0.001), particularly lacerations/contusions (IRR = 4.05, P < 0.001). Ground-based rescues became more common during the pandemic (54.7% vs. 37.3%; IRR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.25-1.72, P < 0.001), while helicopter-based rescues remained stable (IRR = 1.15, P = 0.260). The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a 36% increase in mountain rescue incidence, particularly among female trekkers and those involving minor injuries and weather-related events. The 47% rise in ground-based rescues and stable rate of severe cases reflects a likely influx of less-experienced hikers due to domestic travel restrictions. These findings highlight the need for targeted public education and preparedness strategies to mitigate risks in outdoor recreation during similar global events.

Abstract Introduction Climate change poses an increasing health threat due to heat stress, extreme weather-related events and increasing disease burden. Identifying the characteristics of vulnerable population groups is essential to mitigate morbidity and reduce disease burden1,2. Purpose This study aimed to analyse patients' perspectives on the health impacts of climate change and to identify individuals suffering due to the climatic alterations. Methods A collective of inpatients and outpatients from a tertiary hospital in Germany was invited to complete a 36-item questionnaire. The survey assessed participants’ current life conditions, perceptions of climate change, its impact on their health, and their knowledge of disease risk factors. Statistical analyses were performed using Student's t-test and the chi-squared test to identify subgroup differences. All analyses were performed with SPSS statistical software (version 28). Results 370 patients completed the survey (mean age: 47.8 ± 17.5 years; 50.7% female) and were included in the analysis. More than half of the patients (194; 52.4%) reported that the perceived impact of climate change on their health had increased over the past decade. Nearly half of these, (91; 46.9%) reported experiencing moderate to severe symptoms (SUF). The SUF group was compared with patients who did not perceive the impact of climate change over the past decade (non-SUF). Table 1 shows the situational characteristics of SUF and non-SUF patients. Interestingly, there were neither differences in mean age or gender between these subgroups, nor in working hours or presence of classical risk factors like tobacco or alcohol consumption. However, they differed significantly in medication use, with SUF patients taking a higher number of medications more frequently. SUF patients also measured their blood pressure more frequently and tended to work in a more mobile rather than sedentary manner (compare Figures 1a-c). Furthermore, 85.8% of SUF agreed with the statement that climate change will affect their health in the next 1-2 decades, while 64.3% of non-SUF were neutral or did not expect an effect on their health (p &amp;lt;0.001). Conclusion This study highlights that there is a group of patients who perceive themselves to be particularly vulnerable to the health effects of climate change. Given the potential health implications, targeted interventions are required to mitigate risks and enhance resilience within this population. A concerted effort from physicians, other healthcare providers, researchers and policymakers is necessary to allocate appropriate resources and develop adaptive strategies. Further research is warranted to refine the identification of at-risk populations and to design tailored interventions to reduce climate change-related morbidity and mortality.Table 1 Figure 1

The increasing frequency and magnitude of weather-related extreme events in recent years have severely impacted power grids. Examples of these extreme events include wildfires, heat waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, flooding, etc. Extreme weather disturbances have rendered this critical infrastructure susceptible to disruption, risking essential services from health care to transportation. An important objective for many power utilities is to improve resilience and avoid widespread outages when faced with extreme events. The resilience goal of utility companies is to minimize the duration and magnitude of power outages and enable the rapid recovery of service after an outage event. For this purpose, various preventive and restorative resilience actions are required that can focus on adaptation plans as well as restoration plans that utilities can adopt to restore power to customers in an optimized fashion. However, one of the significant challenges that utilities face is to effectively handle large amounts of data from different sectors and utilize the data in an effective and optimized fashion for making resilience decisions and actions. This article discusses the data management practices required by electric power utilities to improve grid resilience and elaborates the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for the enhanced resilience of electric power grids. The data management and AI applications are discussed from the perspective of preventive and mitigative actions on different power grid sectors, like generation, transmission, and distribution. The article concludes by summarizing the gaps in grid resilience research and technologies.

Abstract An approach is outlined to quantitatively assess the socioeconomic benefits and cost effectiveness of Earth-observing systems. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, the benefits of different constellations of Earth-observing satellites are estimated using the methodology of the Advanced Systems Performance Evaluation Tool for NOAA (ASPEN). In ASPEN, the benefit is the degree to which an observing system or constellation of observing systems satisfies the application requirements weighted by the application priorities of those requirements. Here, a power-law transfer function converts the nowcasting application benefits into estimates of lives saved during weather-related catastrophic events (CAT events). With very substantial error bars, the current operational observing system is estimated to save more than 1200 lives annually that would otherwise be lost in U.S. CAT events. The variation of CAT deaths due to differences in potential versions of the constellation of Earth-observing satellites is described and compared to the estimated costs of the observing systems. Significance Statement Many decisions are required 1) to plan the next constellation of Earth-observing satellites, 2) to design the sensors included in that system, and 3) to operationalize that system. In principle, these decisions should be guided by how the result affects society and the economy. However, to date, the best support for such decisions has been assessment tools that estimate the impact of observing systems on NWP forecasts. These tools can be cumbersome and expensive. In some studies—under the auspices of EUMETSAT, the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS), and NOAA—the impact of improved weather information has been extended to socioeconomic impacts. The Advanced Systems Performance Evaluation Tool for NOAA (ASPEN) was developed to be a science-based and efficient tool for comparative assessment of observation systems. ASPEN also estimates the impacts of observing systems on applications including NWP and nowcasting. The purpose of this study is to translate ASPEN results into impacts on society and the economy. The proof-of-concept example presented is for deaths associated with weather-related catastrophic events (CAT events). For this demonstration, we envision a future in which CAT deaths are substantially reduced due to greatly improved nowcasting. This future scenario and the current state provide two points to define a transfer function (i.e., interpolation/extrapolation) from the ASPEN benefit to the number of CAT deaths. The quadratic extrapolation to the scenario of no weather satellite data gives an estimate that the current system saves more than 1200 lives annually from weather-related CAT events in the United States. In terms of the “value of a statistical life,” this corresponds to a savings of over 12 billion dollars annually, which is greater than the estimated annualized cost of the U.S. contribution to operational meteorological satellites.

448 Background: Climate change will impact the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. Cancer survivors may suffer disproportionate effects on mental health, care disruptions, morbidity, and mortality, yet evaluations of climate risks and cancer survivorship are lacking. We examined future climate risks faced by communities with high levels of CaM overall and by socioeconomic attributes. Methods: Data came from the Climate Vulnerability Index, a county-level measure of climate change risks (45 variables) and a baseline vulnerability index (BVI; 139 variables). Variables scored from 0 (least vulnerable) to 100 (most vulnerable) were categorized as high (rank &gt;50) or low (rank &lt;50) and linked to county-level CaM data from the SEER cancer registry. We compared the top quartile of the US population in counties with the highest CaM rates (55% of counties) to other areas. Using a training/validation strategy (2:1 ratio) and best subset selection with K-fold cross-validation, we previously identified a risk model with 6 climate change risk factors (RFs): weather-related events (hurricane, tornado, precipitation exposure; 3 factors), increased ozone/CO2 levels (1 factor), increased climate-related costs (1 factor), and future economic/productivity losses (1 factor). We now examine whether the risk model applies to high CaM counties with high and low levels (median split) of poverty, individuals aged 65 or older, low income, minority populations, unemployment, and no high school education. Results: Overall, N=3,139 counties were examined. In high CaM counties, 63.7% had high exposure (&gt;3 factors) to the 6 climate RFs, compared to 33.1% in the low CaM counties, a threefold increase in the odds (OR=3.20, 95% CI, 2.72-3.76, p&lt;.0001). Overall, the BVI-adjusted model C-statistic was 0.80 (unadjusted, 0.73). The association of high CaM and high exposure to climate RFs was evident for counties with both high and low levels of socioeconomic variables (Table). Conclusions: This first-of-its-kind ecological association study found that residing in counties with high CaM was associated with future climate change risks, including extreme weather, air pollution, climate costs, and economic losses. These adverse risks will likely impact all high CaM counties, regardless of sociodemographic attributes. Future research is needed to identify the mechanisms linking climate events to worse cancer outcomes, including decreased treatment tolerability, quality, or access. Association of high county-level CaM and exposure to climate RFs. County Attribute Level Odds Ratio 95% CI* Poverty High 3.19 2.54-4.02 Low 3.45 2.79-4.27 Age 65+ High 2.75 2.34-3.38 Low 4.55 3.67-5.65 Low Income High 3.34 2.64-4.24 Low 3.12 2.51-3.86 Minority High 3.78 3.06-4.68 Low 3.34 2.71-4.11 Unemployed High 4.52 3.56-5.74 Low 3.06 2.49-3.77 No High School High 3.09 2.45-3.89 Low 2.93 2.37-3.63 *p&lt;.0001 for all comparisons.

The increase in duration, severity, and frequency of extreme heat will have a profound detrimental impact on human health, as extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related event around the world. At the same time, the population of older (>65 yr) adults is rapidly expanding. The exaggerated heat, coupled with an aging population, increases the number of people at risk during environmental extremes. During heat waves, cardiovascular events and complications secondary to elevated core temperatures are the leading cause of increased morbidity and mortality among older adults. Seminal work demonstrates an impaired cardiovascular response to elevated core and skin temperatures in older adults, resulting in an attenuated capacity to lose heat coupled with increased cardiac strain, in support of the epidemiological data. Here, we review the impact of heat stress on the aged cardiovascular system and highlight the question: "In what specific environments does an increased cardiovascular strain begin to occur in older adults?"

Abstract The growing number of extreme weather events has contributed to an increasing number and severity of power outages. However, the complex interplay of extreme weather events and their compounding effects on power outage characteristics (e.g. event duration) has not been comprehensively explored. Power outage data is often not publicly available, especially at high spatial resolution. Identifying outages related to weather events can also be challenging, as various weather variables can trigger or modulate power outages when they occur, in isolation or combined. Here, we use county-level power outage data from EAGLE-I for the state of Florida from 2015 to 2022 to identify moderate and major weather-related outages and analyze their characteristics. We show that total outage counts were higher in metro areas than in non-metro areas. However, the percentage of weather-related power outages was higher in non-metro areas than in metro areas. The spatial variation of grid reliability indicators derived from all weather-related events follows similar patterns as derived when just focusing on tropical cyclone events, highlighting the importance of these types of extremes in creating prolonged outages. Considering six relevant weather variables, we identify univariate and compound events (i.e. when more than one weather variable was extreme at the time of the outage). Univariate events have a relatively homogenous pattern across the state of Florida, while compound events have more localized hotspots. The average duration of the outages also increases when moving from univariate to multivariate events. Our results shed light on the relative importance of different weather variables (in isolation or combination) in creating power outages with different characteristics across Florida. Identifying such relationships is an important step toward understanding how power outage frequency and/or severity may change when certain extreme weather events become more frequent and/or intense.

Abstract. Climate change is impacting our everyday life and is altering the magnitude and frequency of weather-related extreme events such as precipitation, floods, and drought. For this reason, there is a great demand to study these phenomena in a changing environment on a large global spatial extent.In the past, we developed a protocol for river gauge measurements using satellite passive microwave radiometer (PMR) data and applied over multiple river watersheds [2,1]. Exploiting the high sensitivity of microwave emission to water presence we use low frequency L-band (1–2 GHz) passive microwave radiometry (PMR) to monitor rivers and reservoirs and to compare over different microwave frequencies and polarization configurations. We successfully applied the methodology to ESA Soil Moisture and Sea Salinity (SMOS) sensor data reaching high correlation to in-situ discharge measurements over various river basins in different climate. In this paper, we compare the capabilities of PMR and optical EO to observe river flow over the Amazon and Niger-Volta watershed. We tested the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), a low resolution (250 m – 5 km) NASA satellite data to derive hydrological time series. To understand the performance of optical orbital river gauge from MODIS comparable to the PMR gauge measurements we analyzed 8-day composite of Terra MOD09A1 in Google Earth Engine environment. The product is surface spectral reflectance of Bands 1 through 7 corrected for atmospheric conditions and averaged over an 8-day. Results over tropical regions showed a significant obstacle of cloud cover for optical data (r2: 0.52, std: 0.33), where PMR has the potential to measure river streamflow (r2: 0.82, std: 0.12). Yet over regions with less clouds both optical and PMR can be good alternative to in-situ streamflow ground measurements.

In Q’eqchi’-Maya cosmology mountain deities called Tzuultaq’as govern the land and thus play a significant role in sustaining human life. They likewise have the power to disrupt it and are not reticent to do so when people fail to pay them adequate respect. Those disruptions can take the form of weather-related events that can be described using Amitav Ghosh's term the 'environmental uncanny' (i.e., when otherwise 'natural' phenomena become unnaturally menacing). Yet, Q’eqchi’-Maya people largely describe their relationship to the Tzuultaq’as as respectful and even loving, which allows both to live in mutually sustaining (if hierarchical) relation. This paper examines narratives about and practices surrounding the Tzuultaq’a focusing on the person-like qualities Q’eqchi’-Mayas ascribe to them. It argues that adopting an ethnographic perspective that takes seriously the extent to which other-than-human beings, such as the Tzuultaq’as, can be regarded as actors in the world can help advance a de-centering of the human from our understanding of life on the planet, which scholars have called for as necessary for combatting Anthropogenic climate change.

Following uncertainty prior to the mayoral elections, Madagascar was hit hard by weather-related events in early 2025 and, most notably external shocks: some discontinuation in official development assistance (ODA) (about 1 percent of GDP) and the U.S. tariff hike (47 percent initially). These developments risk setting Madagascar back, considering the country’s reliance on external financing (USAID support was omnipresent) and exposure of its labor-intensive textile industry and vanilla sector to the U.S. market. The Extended Credit Facility (ECF)and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) remain focused on helping enhance overall socio-economic resilience (in a fragile political context), in line with the General State Policy (PGE).

• Analyses media coverage of an extreme weather-related event – a bushfire/wildfire in Australia. • Finds that climate change is not addressed despite attribution science research into recent bushfires in the same state. • Identifies the continued use of personalisation themes and economic framings of bushfire. • Highlights the importance of community and safety framings to “be prepared” in times of bushfire activity. • Suggests four areas for further study to improve climate change attribution research as part of media reporting of weather-related events. There is evidence of increased links in media coverage between anthropogenic climate change and heatwaves, wildfires and flooding events. This usually pertains to major disasters, but that is a relative concept as the notion of disaster is contextual and disasters are devastating at smaller scales for the people impacted. Media reporting of the Alpha Road/Tambaroora bushfire in the central-west region of New South Wales (Australia), in March 2023, was analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyse links between science, anthropogenic climate change and an extreme weather-related event. There was a focus on proximate causes, costs and impact on livelihoods. There was an absence of climate change discourse. Timely attribution science, especially rapid assessments that accurately connect climate change with significant weather-related events, not just large-scale disasters, may increase media salience and assist with science communication. The expectation that parts of Australia will burn, and therefore bushfires become newsworthy only when they are disasters, needs to be challenged in order to live in a changing climate.

Vulnerable populations such as culturally and linguistically diverse communities (CALD), ethnic minorities and racial groups face a disproportionate burden of climate change-related health impacts due to a combination of socio-cultural and economic factors, geographic vulnerabilities and health disparities. This review synthesised the existing evidence on the health and wellbeing impacts of climate change and related weather events among CALD communities. A narrative synthesis approach was utilised to conduct a systematic review. Three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched, identifying 25 studies for appraisal and synthesis. Studies published in the English language from January 2010 to March 2024 were included in the review. The reviewed studies, mostly carried out in the USA, employed varied study designs, and focused on diverse CALD groups such as migrants, farmworkers and racial and ethnic minorities. The included studies addressed broader and specific climate change-related events, ranging from heat-related impacts and hurricanes to occupational heat exposure. CALD communities were found to be more vulnerable to climate change-related negative physical and mental health issues, further exacerbated by poor living conditions, limited access to healthcare, and cultural and language barriers. Future efforts by governments, healthcare agencies, employers and research institutions should prioritise multilingual risk communication strategies, providing culturally appropriate health education and healthcare access, housing improvements and the investigation of long-term health impacts of climate change and coping mechanisms adopted among CALD populations.

11093 Background: Changes in climate patterns will influence the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, leading to increased disasters (e.g., floods, fires), air pollution levels, and climate-related costs. Cancer survivors may suffer disproportionate effects of climate change-related events on mental health, care disruptions, morbidity, and mortality, yet evaluations of area-level climate risks and cancer survivorship are lacking. We examined future climate change risks faced by communities with high levels of cancer mortality. Methods: Data were from the Climate Vulnerability Index, a county-level measure of future climate change risks (45 variables) alongside a baseline vulnerability index (BVI) including health, socioeconomic, and environmental factors (139 variables). Variables ranging from 0 (least vulnerable) to 100 (most vulnerable) were split into high (rank ≥50) vs. low (rank &lt;50) categories and linked to county-level cancer mortality data from the NCI’s SEER registry. We compared the top quartile of the U.S. population living in counties with the highest cancer mortality rates (54.7% of counties) to other areas. Data were randomly split using a 2:1 training/validation ratio. We identified candidate variables in bivariate analyses between climate risk factors (RFs) and area-level cancer mortality. Best-subset selection with logistic regression and K-fold cross-validation was used to derive a parsimonious model of adverse RFs. These were summed, creating a score, and split at the median to test in the validation set. All analyses were adjusted for the BVI. Results: Overall, N=3,139 counties were examined. In the training set (n=2,094), a model with 6 RFs was identified including weather-related events (increased hurricane, tornado, and precipitation exposure), air pollution factors (increased ozone/CO2 levels), increased climate-related costs, and future economic/productivity losses. Compared to low cancer mortality counties, high cancer mortality counties were more than threefold more likely to have high exposure to the 6 climate RFs (69.6% vs. 30.4% with 3-5 factors; OR=3.07, 95% CI, 2.52-3.74, p&lt;.0001). In the test set (n=1,045), results were similar, validating the model. Overall, the BVI-adjusted model C-statistic was 0.80 (unadjusted, 0.73). The association of high cancer mortality areas and high exposure to climate RFs was evident for both high (OR=3.87, p&lt;.0001) and low (OR=2.75, p&lt;.0001) BVI counties. Conclusions: In this first-of-its-kind ecologic association study, we found that living in counties with high cancer mortality was associated with future climate change risks including extreme weather events, air pollution, climate-related costs, and economic factors. Future work is needed to identify potential mechanisms between climate events and worse cancer outcomes such as decreased treatment tolerability, treatment quality, or treatment access.

Urban flooding presents a global challenge, disproportionately affecting socially vulnerable communities. In the U.S., catastrophic floods are compounded by climate change, aging infrastructure, rapid land development, and population growth. Flooding causes more damage than any other severe weather-related event, with an annual average cost of US $4.5 billion and an average of 17 fatalities per year between 1980 and 2024. FEMA’s outdated 100-year floodplain delineations fail to capture evolving flood risk, leading to development inside and outside of 100-year floodplains and potentially higher flood risk for vulnerable communities. Excluding development in 500-year floodplains would reduce risk, although encroachment of urban development into 500-year floodplains exacerbates risks. Despite extensive coastal flood risk and environmental justice research, few studies have been conducted in inland areas like the Intermountain West. Our study analyzes FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer and data from the 2017–2021 American Community Survey to quantify flood injustices in Salt Lake County, Utah. We develop a straight-forward and easily implementable approach for city and county level planning and flood injustice policymaking. Our objectives include assessing demographic attributes within and outside 500-year floodplains, identifying household and population flood injustices, and overlaying 500-year floodplain maps and selected flood injustice variables. Results show that although 44% of Salt Lake County’s 500-year floodplain is in the City of South Salt Lake, the cities of Millcreek and South Jordan emerge as most vulnerable for 500-year flood injustices, these cities have flood risk ratios of 1.92 and 1.67, respectively, where a risk ratio greater than 1.00 indicates potentially concerning flood injustice. These findings highlight observed inequities but do not indicate or prove systematic, intentional, or historical biases resulting from past or present discriminatory policies and practices within these cities. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of flood injustices in inland urban areas, shedding light on the intersection of flood risk and social vulnerability at microscales. Identifying flood injustice communities can inform targeted interventions and policy measures to mitigate flood injustices and enhance flood resilience and adaptation in inland urban areas for vulnerable communities.

Although banana is an important fruit in Sri Lanka that gives a good income to farmers. Researchers have indicated that the majority of the crop is damaged from the farm gate to the consumer table. Accordingly, this research was addressed ‘to find the risks of the banana supply chain in Sri Lanka. The Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach was used in this research to find the risks in the banana supply chain of Sri Lanka. According to the literature survey and data analysis, several risks such as human and personal, production, financial, land prices, biological and environmental, information, political, weather-related, management and operational, agricultural policy, logistics and infrastructure, country’s economic cycle, price or market and input risks can be encountered in the banana supply chain. These risks were categorized into different levels according to the influence they provide to the supply chain. Identifying these risks on a hierarchical model was significant to the administrators, managers and farmers to minimize them effectively to manage the supply chain. The analysis in this study further indicated that production, financial, biological and environmental, weather-related events, political situations, and logistics and infrastructure were the most significant risks. Dealing with these risks can minimize the effect of other risks, improve the income of the farmers and maximize consumer choice.Keywords: Agriculture, Banana, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), Risks, Sri Lanka, Supply Chain.