In July, 2016, academics, practitioners, and individuals in all scales of government, met in El Paso, Texas to discuss the intersection of the Rio Grande/Bravo region’s climate and weather with factors affecting public health risks related to extreme heat. This initial conference, Developing an Integrated Heat-Health Information System for Long-Term Resilience to Climate and Weather Extremes in the El Paso-Juárez-Las Cruces Region, was the formal launch for the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) Southwest regional pilot, where topic-focused working groups (“work streams”) were created. A summary of this initial workshop can be found on the project website. After the July 2016 conference, working groups held regular teleconferences, and then met again in person in January 2017, to advance the priorities identified during the July 2016 conference. At these two meetings, participants recommended specific tasks including:
1. Developing a state of knowledge assessment for extreme heat and public health in the region that includes:
a. A summary of existing literature related to climate/weather and public health;
b. A database of climate/weather and public health regional expertise;
c. A meta-database of existing climate/weather and public health datasets; and
d. Results from community surveys in each city that will determine existing knowledge of extreme heat within the community and their capacity to cope with extreme heat events.
2. Creating a project website, to provide an online presence for the project when applying for funding opportunities. The website will also be a connection between project partners and the public, and a tool for project partners to communicate with each other.
3. Creating a Binational Heat-Health Task Force, composed of organizations in each of the three cities, with a common mission to identify and address capacity building and public education needs, and to communicate information and messages in both English and Spanish.
The project committee and work streams met again, on August 14, 2017 to assess progress on the recommendations described above, discuss acquired and potential funding opportunities, and determine next steps for the project. This workshop summary, from the August meeting, focuses on project progress thus far, and provides a roadmap for sustaining the initiative.