Solco W. Tromp Foundation

Daphne Parliari: Who bears the burden? Heat, air pollution and environmental justice in a changing climate

Climate change and air pollution pose major risks to human health, but their impacts are not equally distributed. This presentation explores how environmental exposure interacts with social, demographic and spatial vulnerability, creating inequalities in health risk across populations and places. Particular attention is given to air pollution, heat, vulnerable groups and socio-spatial disparities, highlighting their connection to environmental justice. The talk concludes by considering how environmental governance can move beyond regulatory compliance towards more inclusive approaches that promote equal protection, meaningful participation and a healthy environment for all.

Giorgos Alexandru: Bridging Regional Weather Data and Street-Scale Heat Exposure: An Urban Downscaling Framework

Regional weather data describe atmospheric conditions across a city, but do not show how heat stress varies from street to street. This study aims to link regional meteorological information with pedestrian-level heat exposure in a dense urban environment. A downscaling framework is applied in Nicosia, comparing UTCI estimates from UMEP with high-resolution URANS-CFD simulations. The approach assesses how these methods represent local urban conditions when estimating heat exposure at street scale.

Andreas Matzarakis: Communicating Extreme Heat and Health

Extreme weather conditions and climate related events increasingly shape daily life and the functioning of essential infrastructure. Human societies and built environments are vulnerable to a broad spectrum of environmental hazards, including forest fires, drought, rising sea levels, extreme precipitation and prolonged heat waves. Among these hazards, extreme heat poses one of the most immediate and pervasive risks, particularly in densely populated urban areas where people are exposed to intensified thermal stress. This exposure is expected to increase further in the coming decades as climate change progresses and urbanisation continues.

A series of examples will be presented and analysed, using heat as a central case to illustrate key principles of effective communication. These insights draw on recent experiences with public and media communication across Europe and highlight the growing importance of clear, science based messaging in a warming world.

Peter Hoeppe: Impressions from ICB 2026 Every three years the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB)

Every three years the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) organises an international congress (ICB) bringing together biometeorologists from all continents. The last ICB has been held at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, from 13 to 16 July, 2026.

ICB 2026 has been organized by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Novi Sad. Special thanks to Stevan Savić, Jelena Dekić, Daniela Arsenović, Milica Vasić, and the complete local organizing committee for their perfect and so friendly organization and hosting of ICB.

With more than 200 delegates from 40 countries, the 24th International Congress of Biometeorology was a great success! During the congress 170 lectures have been given and discussed. Interestingly the largest fraction of lectures were given on the topic of increasing heat stress, the risks of increased morbidity/mortality and how to minimise these risks. As an example, a study on the effects of already existing heat management systems in cities has shown, that they on average could reduce heat mortality by 25%. Due to the climate crisis, research in these fields has become more important and has the potential to contribute solutions for adaptation to a warmer climate.

Joanna Wieczorek and Bogdan Bochenek: Air pollution and meteorological factors affecting hospital admissions in Poland

The most significant climate-related factors affecting public health in Poland are, first, unprecedented changes in relative thermal conditions due to global warming and, second, persistently high levels of air pollution, mainly from coal-based residential heating. While the presence of fine particulate matter is important, even more harmful health effects arise from the chemicals deposited on these particles.

Meteorologists, in collaboration with medical professionals in Poland, are conducting interdisciplinary analyses of the risk of hospitalisation among various patient groups. Their aim is to identify patterns that could be used to forecast the expected number of hospitalisations based on weather conditions, as part of the developed EarlyWarnings4ALL initiative, as well as to provide recommendations for patients and to outline objectives for environmental policy and the organisation of healthcare at the national and regional scales in Poland.

The results of their research indicate that for respiratory diseases, SO₂ concentrations and chemical components in particulate matter proved to be the most significant factors; lower post-operative survival rates were observed in the group of patients who had undergone lung resection and who lived in areas with higher concentrations of BaP, whilst the risk of hospitalisation due to ear and intestinal inflammation increases with higher short-term exposure for NO2 levels.

Rebecca Emerton: Weather and climate monitoring for human health: tracking the global intensification of heat stress

This presentation provides an overview of climate monitoring activities within the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) at ECMWF, focussing on the monitoring of heat and cold stress using the ERA5-HEAT Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) dataset. Key findings on thermal stress from the European State of the Climate 2025 report are presented, followed by an overview of new global-scale research that highlights a pronounced, multidimensional intensification and expanding footprint of heat stress – the leading cause of weather-related mortality – on the human population. Finally, Thermal Trace, an interactive app for exploring heat and cold stress data worldwide from 1940 to near-real-time, is introduced.

Cho Kwong Charlie Lam: Climate Walk initiative

European heatwave intensity has increased, and this year’s four record-breaking heatwaves resulted in at least 35,000 excess mortality in Europe. However, people’s heat exposure varies substantially at the microscale, and there is a data gap in fixed weather station networks. Therefore, we have a vision of creating a protocol for climate walk to produce transferable, climate adaptation evidence across cities and climate zones. In this way, planners and municipalities can apply findings from other cities to their own planning. A climate walk is a route-based assessment with concurrent measurements of microclimate and surveys of environmental perception. The output is a mapped sequence of heat exposure and perception. A shared protocol would involve route and pace, stop duration, sensor instrument tiers, mean radiant temperature calculation, survey wording, and walk conditions. Currently, the consortium has 19 researchers across 10 European countries. We are starting a study group within the International Society of Biometeorology. Anyone interested is welcome to join the study group and contribute to the vision of establishing the protocol for the climate walk.

Brigitte Perrin: Adapting science for a changing world: how AI and communication can bridge the gap to society

As generative AI increasingly becomes an interface between scientific institutions and users, science communication is entering a new phase. People may no longer begin with institutional websites or reports, but instead ask AI systems to connect information across disciplines and organisations. Using climate and health as an example, this presentation explores both the potential and risks of that shift: AI can make complex knowledge more accessible, but can also lose context, uncertainty, provenance and scientific boundaries.

Earth Info Hub is developing a public-interest AI approach based on curation before generation: grounding responses in selected authoritative and publicly available scientific outputs, while keeping sources traceable and scientific judgement in the loop. The presentation also highlights the role of the Earth Info Hub Scientific Advisory Group in defining authoritative sources, identifying knowledge gaps and challenging where AI could get the science wrong.

Aleksandra Kazmierczak: European Climate and Health Observatory: analysis exposure, impacts and responses

The European Climate and Health Observatory is a partnership between the European Commission, the European Environment Agency (EEA) - who are jointly managing the Observatory - and several other organisations. The initiative was set up in 2021, under the European Commission’s ‘Forging a climate-resilient Europe – the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change’ in order to better understand, anticipate and prevent climate change impacts on health.

This presentation showcases some of the European Environment Agency outputs under the European Climate and Health Observatory. Firstly, it presents work done on exposure of population, schools and hospitals to climate hazards, with focus on heat. Secondly, the mortality and morbidity impacts of climate extremes are presented. Finally, the presentation includes data and knowledge on responses in policy and practice, at levels ranging from the EU to individual households.

Jonilda Kushta, presented by Cristina Ananasso: The Copernicus Health Hub and Beyond: Connecting Copernicus Capabilities and the Health Community

This presentation, delivered on behalf of ECMWF, introduces the Copernicus Health Hub and explores its integration with broader developments across the ECMWF-implemented Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The session details the extensive work being done within National Collaboration Programs (NCPs) and showcases numerous health-oriented demonstrators and projects. CHH provides practical examples of translating complex data to effectively communicate climate and environmental health risks to diverse audiences.

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