Community Climate Resiliency Planning

The Climate Change and Health Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment (CCHVAA) is a planning tool that explores how climate change is impacting health across Interior Health's health service delivery areas (HSDAs).

Through a combination of community engagement and data analysis, each assessment identifies key climate hazards, highlights vulnerable populations, and outlines opportunities to strengthen community resilience with a focus on the social, economic and geographic factors that shape it.

Assessments are now complete across all four HSDAs: Kootenay Boundary, Thompson Cariboo Shuswap, Okanagan and East Kootenay.

The Kootenay Boundary assessment was completed first as a pilot. The Thompson Cariboo Shuswap, Okanagan and East Kootenay assessments build on lessons learned by engaging further with community partners to ensure findings reflect regional realities.

Read the summary report for the Kootenay Boundary Health Service Delivery Area

Read the full report for the Kootenay Boundary Health Service Delivery Area

Read the full report for the East Kootenay Health Service Delivery Area 

Read the full report for the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap Health Service Delivery Area 

Read the full report for the Okanagan Health Service Delivery Area 

Each assessment offers insights into how climate-related events are affecting health and well-being in each health service delivery area. They are best understood as tools to guide priorities and prompt further questions, rather than a complete picture of climate-related health risk.

Engagement focused largely on government and service providers, and while climate projection data strengthens the assessments, it cannot fully capture how future risks will interact with the social, economic and infrastructure conditions that shape health outcomes.

This body of work helps build the knowledge and capacity of our staff so they are better equipped to support communities with climate adaptation going forward. The assessments are also intended as a resource to inform regional planning, support partnership development, and help guide conversations with communities and decision-makers about climate-related health priorities in the Interior.

The 2023 MHO Report includes stories of innovation and resilience to climate change that are intended to inspire action and creative solutions at the community level.

Read 2023 MHO Report: Climate Change, Health and Well-being

View the Heat Alert & Response Planning Toolkit for Interior BC Communities

The Interior Health (IH) Community Health and Climate Change Maps were published in 2022 are now being retired. The Community Health and Climate Change Maps were inspired by a similar set of maps developed to represent community vulnerability to climate change in Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health to help regional authorities to prepare and plan for events caused by climate change and to increase awareness about what causes some communities in the Interior to be inequitably impacted by climate change. 

We are retiring the maps due to:

• Evolving methodology for climate change vulnerability mapping
• Availability of new data including 2021 Census data
• Emerging research on extreme hazards and adaptation.

IH will continue to work with the Province of BC and/or other health authorities to assess regional and provincial needs to support communities in preparing and planning for weather related hazards caused by climate change. In the meantime, refer to:

• ClimateData.ca allows decision makers to access, visualize, and analyze climate data, and provides related information and tools to support adaptation planning and decision-making.
• Plan2Adapt Tool generates maps, plots, and data describing projected future climate conditions for regions throughout British Columbia. It is designed to help you assess climate change in your region based on a standard set of climate model projections.
• Climate Atlas of Canada combines climate science, mapping, and storytelling together with Indigenous Knowledges and community-based research and video to inspire awareness and action.

View our webpages on:

Healthy Communities

Climate Change