Climate Health Research · University of Amsterdam, CSSCI capstone project

Neighbourhood level policy interventions Including climate and health data into municipal policymaking

Rising temperatures are becoming a growing challenge in the Netherlands, with consequences being experienced unequally amongst the population. This tool highlights climate-related health risks across four key themes, identifies the most vulnerable areas and suggests potential interventions to help policymakers and communities with addressing it effectively.

11,734 Neighborhoods
4+1 Drivers + risk score
2024–2100 Scenarios
Explore your region
Simulated heat vulnerability by neighborhood

Explore climate vulnerability
in your region

Search for a municipality or browse by province to see neighborhood-level vulnerability across four drivers plus a composite risk score - and receive targeted intervention recommendations.

Search across all municipalities in the dataset

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Composite risk score
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Projection year 2024

*Future years are scenario assumptions, not exact predictions. How future risk is calculated

The research context

Why heat-health risk is hard to act on

Heat-health vulnerability is not only produced by exposure, population sensitivity, and housing conditions. It also depends on whether evidence can be translated into municipal priorities, routines, and intervention timing.

01

Heat exposure is spatially unequal

Dense urban neighbourhoods with little vegetation and high shares of dark surfaces experience substantially higher heat stress than surrounding areas.

Urban heat is distributed unevenly across neighbourhoods
02

Vulnerability is socially patterned

Elderly residents, young children, people with frail health, and low-income households face compounding barriers to self-protection during heat events.

Heat risk increases where exposure and social vulnerability overlap
03

Housing and infrastructure shape indoor risk

Older housing, limited green space, poor cooling access, and rental constraints can turn outdoor heat exposure into a local public-health problem.

Built environments can reduce or amplify heat-health risk
04
Policy interpretation gap

Heat-health risk competes for policy attention

Dutch climate adaptation has long been shaped by collective experience with water and flood protection. Heat-health risks are newer, less visible, and harder to fit into established municipal routines.

The challenge is not only data, but interpretation