# CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation, and Health Equity (CLIMA) Center

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2024 · $4,107,072

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (OVERALL)
The University of Southern California (USC) CLIMAte-Related Exposures, Adaptation, and Health Equity
(CLIMA) Center's mission is to build a community of transdisciplinary scientists and robust research
infrastructure to advance its theme of community-engaged, solution-oriented climate change (CC), adaptation,
and health research. The goal is to inform climate action policies for health equity that strengthen local adaptive
capacity, reduce vulnerability, and increase resilience across the life course. A Methods Development Research
Core (MDRC) will develop innovative, highly spatiotemporally resolved models of exposure to urban heat islands,
wildfire smoke, and increasingly frequent, concurrently, or consecutively occurring compound climate events and
investigate their overlap with neighborhood adaptation strategies (e.g., air conditioning use, tree canopy shade,
greening interventions) and vulnerabilities (power outages) to identify priorities for increasing CC resilience.
These exposure and adaptation measures will be linked to large and diverse electronic medical record (EMR)
Data Lakes from USC-affiliated hospital systems, with novel geo-enrichment with neighborhood social and
environmental determinants of health in Research Project 1 (RP1), and with lifetime residential histories of young
adults with detailed cardiovascular health assessment starting from childhood in Research Project 2 (RP2). RP1
will assess heat extremes and wildfire influenced particulate matter air pollution impact on acute heart failure
hospitalization and rehospitalization risk in adults, while informing new directions in biostatistical methods. RP2
will assess the lifetime heat stress and wildfire smoke exposures impact on cardiovascular health measures
(blood pressure, pulse rate) and allostatic load as a measure of biological resilience, and as a cardiovascular
risk indicator earlier in life. The two RP's will investigate how these effects differ by social vulnerability and
adaptation factors (e.g., air conditioning use, power outages, power grid resilience, urban heat islands, tree
canopies etc.). The Community Engagement Core (CEC) will facilitate solution-oriented translational research
and multi-directional communication with policymakers and the public. It will engage environmental justice
communities using an intergenerational approach, including community participatory action research and
education to engage youth in the co-design, monitoring, and ground-truthing of adaptation strategies. The CLIMA
Center will create strong transdisciplinary research teams, capacity, and culture urgently needed to assess the
complex, cascading impacts of CC hazards and exposures on health equity and adaptive capacity over the life
course, starting with cardiovascular health and disease as a sentinel public health burden. Given California's
diverse communities and array of climate adaptation, mitigation, and health equity policies, it provides an
oppo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10980382
- **Project number:** 1P20HL176204-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Rima Habre
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $4,107,072
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-17 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10980382

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10980382, CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation, and Health Equity (CLIMA) Center (1P20HL176204-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10980382. Licensed CC0.

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