California Air Resources Board

Principal Investigator/Author: Michael Jerrett

Contractor: University of California, Los Angeles

Sub-contractors: University of California, Berkeley & Baylor University

Contract Number: 19RD015

Project Status: Active

Relevant CARB Programs: AB 32 Climate Change Scoping Plan

Topic Areas: Natural and Working Lands,Wildfires, Smoke,Wildfire Smoke & Health

Research Summary:

California is comprised of biologically diverse landscapes that include forests, woodlands, rangelands, farmlands, riparian areas, grasslands, scrublands, wetlands and urban green space. Together these lands are known as Natural and Working Lands (NWL). The goal of this contract is to create a NWL health scenario tool that will calculate the potential health impacts of climate policies in NWL. To develop the tool, the research team will conduct an in-depth literature review of health studies on wildfire, urban green space, and benefits of NWL in reducing pollution and improving health. The research team will conduct health impact assessments of urban greening scenarios, historic wildfire, and future wildfire scenarios. The health endpoints to be investigated include mortality and life expectancy for the urban greenspace analysis, and mortality and respiratory outcomes for wildfire. The results will be incorporated into the NWL health scenario tool. The final tool will be able to quantify the health benefits of NWL management scenarios that reduce wildfire and increase greening in urban areas. It is anticipated that the results of the NWL Health Scenario Tool will fill critical gaps in knowledge about potential human health impacts of various activities related to the conservation, management, and restoration of NWL in California.

Keywords: wildfires, wildfire smoke, public health, health assessment, PM2.5, modeling, natural and working lands, health outcome, epidemiology, Scoping Plan, health Co-Benefit Areas, urban greening, climate actions