Call for Papers: Topical Collection on Climate and Health

Spatial Demography (Springer Nature) is soliciting manuscripts for a forthcoming Topical Collection on Climate and Health.

We seek high-quality articles that utilize spatial concepts, data, and methods to inform our understanding of the population dynamics of climate change and its impacts on human health and wellbeing as specified in UN Sustainable Development Goal #3 (SDG). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2022 Report, climate change impacts health processes and outcomes directly, via pathways such as extreme weather, indirectly, via increased exposure to pollution, allergens, and disease vectors, and structurally, via social and economic disruption, all of which disproportionately impact already marginalized and vulnerable populations. Global warming is projected to continue over the coming decades, ultimately leading to a drastic increase in the global temperature. This, in turn, will contribute to continued increases in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, impacts on food and water quality and distribution, infectious disease spread, increases in air pollution and allergens, forced migration, civil disruption, mental illness, and premature mortality.

Mitigating these impacts requires greater understanding of the ways in which climate change drives population disease, health disparities, and mortality, as well as the ways in which populations are responding to the effects of climate change to safeguard human health. In this context, we are interested in submissions that examine population health dynamics in relation to/resulting from climate change, such as treatments of the following topics:

• Health consequences of forced migration (SDG 10): due to increasing disaster frequency/intensity, worsening air pollution, heat intensification, water scarcity, sea level rise, etc.

• Climate justice (SDGs 1, 4, 5, 7-8, 10): disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized populations.

• Resilience and adaptation (SDGs 9, 11): strategies being used by populations impacted by climate to mitigate damage.

• Child development, aging and mortality (SDGs 1-11): increased premature mortality among aging populations/increased risk of disease among children due to extreme weather events, extreme heat, pollution, agricultural shock, water and food scarcity, etc.

• Infectious disease (SDGs 2, 6, 9-11): due to changes in vector ecology, temperature, water and food supply.

• Mental illness (SDGs 1-8, 10, 11): impacts of climate anxiety, severe weather losses, forced migration, civil conflict.

The topical collection will be coordinated by O Kim (Korea University, South Korea – e-mail: oskim@korea.ac.kr) and Louisa Holmes (Penn State, USA – email: lmholmes@psu.edu) with editorial support from Stephen A. Matthews (Penn State, USA – e-mail: sxm27@psu.edu). Please feel free to reach out to the organizers about the suitability of a manuscript for this topical collection. We particularly welcome submissions from researchers based on diverse regions and contexts and interdisciplinary submissions that integrate spatial demography with other social science fields.

Please submit your manuscript through the Springer Editorial Manager system, with a note on the cover letter stating that the submission is for consideration for the Topical Collection on Climate and Health.