Bushfire smoke and heatwaves increasingly threaten population health, especially among vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, pregnant women, people with disabilities or comorbidities, and low-income households. These risks are projected to intensify with climate change, particularly in urban areas affected by heat islands, poor housing, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Community resilience centres—cool, clean-air spaces in public buildings—offer a promising yet under-evaluated intervention. This interdisciplinary, community co-designed project will assess their effectiveness in reducing exposure to heat and smoke, potential health benefits and costs, and associated implementation challenges. The project focuses on fast-growing, high-risk suburbs in Western Sydney and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to inform scalable, evidence-based public health strategies.

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Researchers

University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½:

Sotiris Vardoulakis (HEAL GRC, University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½), Syeda Hira Fatima (HEAL GRC, University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½), Nigel Goodman (HEAL GRC, University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½), Itismita Mohanty (Health Research Institute, University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½), Nasser Bagheri (Health Research Institute, University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½) Julien Perriard (University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½), Brad Clarke (University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½),

External Researchers:

Guy Marks (Burnet Institute), Christine Cowie (Woolcock Institute), Amanda Wheeler (CSIRO), Abby Mallik Lopes (UTS), Cameron Tonkinwise (UTS), Veronica Matthews (University of Sydney), Geoffrey Morgan (University of Sydney), Shamila Hadad (University of Sydney), Bin Jalaludin (UNSW), Mat Santamouris (UNSW), Konstantina Vasilakopoulou (UNSW), Sharon Campbell (University of Tasmania)

Project Partners

University of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Burnet Institute, Woolcock Institute, CSIRO, UTS, University of Sydney, UNSW, University of Tasmania

Project Funders

NHMRC