# Research Project: Evaluating Green Infrastructure Impacts on Climate Change Related Heat, Air Quality, Flooding, and Cardiopulmonary Outcomes in Chicago

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2024 · $660,183

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY RESEARCH PROJECT There is an urgent need to develop scientific evidence in
support of effective strategies that will reduce climate impacts on vulnerable urban populations. This research
project of the UIC Center for Climate and Health Equity (CECHE) is a direct response to community-partner
concerns regarding the need for action-oriented solutions to address climate change impacts in Chicago’s
overburdened environmental justice (EJ) communities. While there is a great deal of research on green space
broadly defined, detailed assessments of specific green infrastructure (GI) features (tree canopy, biodiversity,
grass, non-native plantings) are often lacking. Consequently, there is limited epidemiologic evidence examining
detailed elements of GI and their variable influence on climate and health parameters including temperature,
air pollution, and flooding. Analogous to this, there is a need to identify how GI can alleviate cardiovascular and
respiratory responses in relationship with other climate related factors including heat and air pollution.
Industrialization, transportation, and structural racism have shaped the quality of the built environment and led
to a greater proportion of minority communities living in EJ communities throughout Chicago with significant
health disparities. Further, our research has found disparities in GI. In-depth assessments of potential causal
pathways linking climate and health outcomes have accounted for GI and environmental exposures are
needed. The Greater Chicago Region is an ideal study location. In 1995, the City of Chicago was the site of the
worst heat wave disaster in recent US history. More recently, Chicago received over nine inches of rain in less
than 24 hours, with greater impact in EJ communities. Despite recent gains, fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
levels have started to increase in recent years, and ground-level ozone (O3) levels are projected to rapidly
increase again. These concerning trends are compounded by Chicago’s aging and inadequate infrastructure.
Over the past 20 years, the many agencies in Chicago have made concerted efforts to promote GI without a
strong evidence base. To address these policy-relevant gaps, we will use a highly resolved spatiotemporal
data architecture linking multiple fine-scaled (~30 meter or ~1ft scale) GI, climate related environmental
hazards (PM2.5, O3, heat, flooding), and patient-level hospital admissions and emergency department visit data
from 2010–2023. We hypothesize that the specific quantity and type of GI is associated with reductions in the
risk of heat, air pollution, and flooding and may alter the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
outcomes. We will determine associations of fine-scaled urban GI with high temperatures, PM2.5, and O3 (Aim
1), examine associations between GI and spatiotemporal incidence of flooding (Aim 2), and evaluate
association of short-term exposure to ambient PM2.5, O3, heat, and flooding with emerge...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10981086
- **Project number:** 1P20MD019989-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Honghyok Kim
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $660,183
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-21 → 2027-09-20

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10981086

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10981086, Research Project: Evaluating Green Infrastructure Impacts on Climate Change Related Heat, Air Quality, Flooding, and Cardiopulmonary Outcomes in Chicago (1P20MD019989-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10981086. Licensed CC0.

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