Investigating the Synergistic Health and Economic Impacts of Hot-and-Polluted Episodes in Singapore under Climate Change
Main Applicant – Prof Steve Hung-Lam Yim, Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

Singapore’s tropical climate, dense urban environment and changing climatic conditions especially extreme heat and elevated air pollution co-occur forming Heat-and-Polluted Episodes (HPEs). This can pose public health issues escalating their economic challenges. While heat and air affect health, their combined impacts remain poorly quantified due to limited patient level integration of environmental and health data.

This study investigates the synergistic health and economic impacts of HPEs in Singapore by linking comprehensive clinical, health and demographic dataset with high-resolution environmental indicators. Advanced predictive models will be developed to assess short- and long-term health risks under current and future climatic conditions. This will further identify vulnerable populations by age, socioeconomic status and geographic locations, and estimate the direct healthcare costs and burden attributable to climate- exacerbated health conditions.

By integrating population scale health data with environmental exposures, we aim to generate actionable evidence to support climate-resilient health policy planning in Singapore.