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Mapping vulnerability to climate change-related hazards: children at risk in a US–Mexico border metropolis

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Abstract

There are significant human impacts associated with climate change. This paper introduces a model for identifying small area risks associated with children’s vulnerability to climate change-related hazard exposures, which is transferable to other regions and adaptable to varied population and exposure scenarios. The cross-national El Paso-Ciudad Juárez (US-Mexico) metropolis serves as the study area for model implementation, which involves mapping social vulnerability, hazard exposure, and cumulative climate change-related risks. This study addresses two limitations of extant fine-scale climate change vulnerability mapping studies. First, rather than focusing on one exposure variable, it assesses the combined risks of multiple exposures (extreme heat, peak ozone, and floods) and, thus, offers a model for mapping neighborhood-level cumulative climate change exposure risks. Second, it provides a model for small area spatial analyses of climate change vulnerability within low-/middle-income countries and in contexts where climate change risks (and appropriate responses) are cross-national in scope.

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Acknowledgments

This work is dedicated to the memory of Paula Ford. We acknowledge Bill Hargrove (Center for Environmental Resource Management [CERM] at the University of Texas at El Paso [UTEP]) and Marcelo Korc (Pan-American Health Organization) for helping assemble the research team and supporting this project. Yolanda McDonald and Anthony Jimenez, UTEP Sociology graduate students, assembled the lack of access to care variable for El Paso and provided thoughtful feedback on this manuscript. This project was supported by the Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Cooperative Agreement EM 83486101-01. The content is the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the CERM, UTEP, SCERP, or US EPA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), 500 W University Ave, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    Timothy W. Collins & Sara E. Grineski

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), 500 W University Ave, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    Paula Ford

  3. University College and Regional Geospatial Service Center, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), 500 W University Ave, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    Raed Aldouri

  4. Environment and Natural Resources, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

    María de Lourdes Romo Aguilar

  5. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

    Gilberto Velázquez-Angulo

  6. Department of Physics, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), 500 W University Ave, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    Rosa Fitzgerald

  7. Department of Physics, Atmospheric Science and GeoScience, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA

    Duanjun Lu

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  1. Timothy W. Collins
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Correspondence to Timothy W. Collins.

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Collins, T.W., Grineski, S.E., Ford, P. et al. Mapping vulnerability to climate change-related hazards: children at risk in a US–Mexico border metropolis. Popul Environ 34, 313–337 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-012-0170-8

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