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Home > Projects
A Scan of Municipal Heat/Health Warning Systems and Hot Weather Response Plans (2006)
The Clean Air Partnership recently conducted a scan of heat health warning systems and hot weather response plans across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada. The Clean Air Partnership Report recommends that a minimum standard for hot weather response be developed and implemented across the region. Further research is needed to identify an appropriate heat alert trigger as well as systematic evaluations of those systems in place.
The report found considerable variability in the scope and implementation of these systems. Of five Public Health Units in the GTA, two (the Region of Peel and the City of Toronto) have developed heat watch-warning systems based on the synoptic method developed by Dr. Larry Kalkstein. These watch warning systems are geographically specific and accompanied by multistakeholder intervention plans. Halton Region issues heat alerts based on Environment Canada's Humidex Index while the other two regions in the GTA, Durham and York Region, have not yet implemented a heat alert system.
While upper and single-tier municipalities in the Province of Ontario are responsible for issuing heat alerts, intervention and mitigation efforts tend to fall to lower-tier municipalities. Across the GTA it was found that the majority of municipalities respond to heat informally and inconsistently. Lack of resources, uncertainty about the need for intervention strategies and a lack of direction from the regions were all cited as barriers to creating comprehensive protocols for responding to heat.
As a result of this variability in both heat alert triggers and intervention strategies depending on where the vulnerable populations are located across the GTA, the level of risk varies. The Clean Air Partnership Report recommends that a minimum standard for hot weather response be developed and implemented across the region. Further research is needed to identify an appropriate heat alert trigger as well as systematic evaluations of those systems in place.
>>> This report can be accessed at:
www.cleanairpartnership.org/pdf/
heat_health_report.pdf
| Timeline | 2006 |
| Team | Clean Air Partnership |