In this section of the hub you can find a wide range of resources to support processes of incorporating health and wellbeing into adaptation planning processes. Resources included here bring focus on how health has been brought into adaptation development processes and challenges that arise when it is left unaddressed.
Available resources include research papers, policy briefs, reports, case examples, videos, and podcasts.
A clear, accessible summary of how climate change affects health, safety, place, self, and belonging — and why it matters for well-being and fair, inclusive adaptation.
Date: 14/10/25
People living in flood-prone areas can find it harder to access household insurance. For example, Mayhew et al. (2012) found that…
Date: 22/11/23
Opinion piece on the inclusion of mental health in IPCC assessments.
Date: 13/03/26
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A case study of the health and social impacts of flooding in Carlisle, UK, in 2005
A review of literature incorporating public participation and citizen engagement in climate change adaptation since 1992 reveals lexical, temporal, and spatial distribution dynamics of research on the topic.
Financial mechanisms, such as insurance can support a living-with-risk approach enabling people to stay in place when threatened with flood risk and to recover after a disaster event. When insurance mechanisms are present they can support responses to flood risk, both proactively in providing a sense of security and in the recovery period by providing for the financial cost of repairs. This is suggestive of the importance of insurance companies’ roles in shaping health and wellbeing in climate adaptation, and identifiable as an area where processes could be designed to lessen negative mental health impacts.
Nurhidayah and McIlgorm (2019) show that in Indonesia the legal framework for adaptation to sea level rise does not fully acknowledge the burden of adapting on communities, they suggest that a more inclusive social justice approach is needed increasing involvement of local people in adaptation planning to improve adaptation outcomes.
Find definitions for terms that are frequently used in the Healthy Adaptations Hub.
| Terminology | Definition |
|---|---|
| Affect | People’s emotional evaluation of experiences of everyday life. Affective responses to flood interventions are important for understanding the social consequences of adaptations and how these are distributed. Affective responses are also important for galvanising support for adaptation policies because of the way people can influence how they interpret social situations and their intended and actual behaviours. |
| Affective wellbeing | People’s emotional evaluation of everyday life experiences in terms of their preferences versus reality. |
| Place making | [Definition to come] |
The Healthy Adaptations Hub showcases research from a range of projects that have been undertaken by social scientists, health economists, demographers, epidemiologists, and hydrologists across multiple universities (see Underpinning Research for details on who’s been involved).
The Hub showcases a series of resources to support sustainable, health-focused climate risk adaptation, addressing mortality risk and other multi-faceted health impacts.
The Hub has been informed by underpinning research carried out as part of multiple projects addressing different aspects of these issues.
Get in touch with the Healthy Adaptations Team at:
Catherine Butler (University of Exeter) c.butler@exeter.ac.uk | Neil Adger (University of Exeter) n.adger@exeter.ac.uk | Stacey Heath (Open University) stacey.heath@open.ac.uk
