The Adaptation Group:
Our main goal is to undertake top-level basic research in the fields of climate sciences, environmental epidemiology and public health.
The team is at the forefront of environmental epidemiology by analysing a novel database of human health in Europe, which incorporates a range of environmental, socioeconomic and demographic variables and novel digital data streams at different spatiotemporal scales. We jointly analyse environmental drivers (e.g. climate variability, air pollution, desert dust, wildfires) and socioeconomic factors (e.g. macro- and socio-economics, ageing, inequality, gender gap) influencing recent patterns and trends in public health. We focus on various health outcomes, encompassing human mortality, hospital admissions, occupational and road accidents, and maternal and child health.
Our ultimate aim is to perform beyond state-of-the-art research to redefine public health adaptation actions and air pollution mitigation strategies, and consequently, reduce the disease burden in Europe and worldwide. To do so, we explore the path from ground-breaking research to innovation by using the resources and knowledge generated in our studies and projects to develop novel tools to address global-to-local societal challenges, and increase human resilience to climate change and other environmental threats. In particular, we use epidemiological models to transform the predictability of the climate system into impact-based, health early warning systems predicting the disease risks and health effects of ambient temperatures and air pollutants:
- Pan-European health early warning system:
Forecaster.health
These are some of the areas in which we perform our research:
- Disease burden estimation:
Summer 2022,
Summer 2023,
LCE 2024,
LCE 2022
- Epidemiological methods:
SB-DLNM,
Temporal aggregation
- Large-area epidemiological modelling:
In-hospital mortality,
Cardiorespiratory mortality/morbidity,
Hospital admissions
- Small-area epidemiological modelling:
SB-DLNM,
TEMOB,
Asthma,
COPD
- Disease forecasting:
Malaria,
Subseasonal-to-seasonal,
2003 predictability,
ENSO and KD,
Perspective
- Climate change adaptation:
Adaptation in Europe,
Heating/AC,
Seasonality reversal,
Cardiovascular,
Heat trends,
Inequalities,
Maladaptation
- Climate change projections:
Mortality projections,
Unobserved extreme heat,
Acclimatization scenarios,
Ageing
- Air pollution modelling:
Transboundary ozone,
Compound air pollution,
Aerosol optical depth,
Reanalyses
- Socioeconomic and demographic factors:
Great recession,
Prospective age,
Social inequalities
- Maternal and child health:
White matter development,
Foetal size/growth
- Climate dynamics and modelling:
Urban climate model,
El Niño magnitude/timing,
El Niño heat precursor,
ENSO heat buildup
Current Members:
Elisa Gallo (2022-): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology.
Natalia Shartova (2023-): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Geography.
Marcos Quijal-Zamorano (2019-): Predoctoral Fellow, MSc Biostatistics, BSc Mathematics.
Zhaoyue Chen (2021-): Severo Ochoa Predoctoral Fellow, MSc Medicine, BSc Biostatistics.
Constanza Vielma (2021-): Severo Ochoa Predoctoral Fellow, MSc Psychology of Social Intervention, BSc Sociology.
Thessa Beck (2021-): Marie Sklodowska-Curie Predoctoral Fellow, BSc Meteorology, MSc Climate Studies.
Niti Mishra (2022-): Predoctoral Fellow, MSc Data Science, BSc Commerce in Economics and Management.
Blanca Paniello Castillo (2023-): Predoctoral Fellow, MMSc in Public Health Sciences and Epidemiology, BSc in Biomedical Sciences.
Raúl Fernando Méndez Turrubiates (2021-): Software Engineer, MSc Physical Oceanography, BSc Atmospheric Sciences.
Fabien Peyrusse (2023-): Software Engineer, MSc in Engineering.
Nadia Denisse Beltrán Barrón (2023-): Software Engineer, MSc in Physical Oceanography, BSc in Oceanology.
Jorge Ruiz Cabrejos (2024-): Software Engineer, MSc in Health Data Science, BSc in Health Administration.
Mireia Beas (2021-): Project Manager and Data Assistant, MA Museum Studies, BSc Biology.
External and Visiting Members:
Hicham Achebak (2017-): Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Demography.
Tomáš Janoš (2022-): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Epidemiology.
Ekaterina Borisova (2023-): Predoctoral Fellow, MSc Landscape Planning and Architecture, BSc Ecology and Natural Management.
Former Members:
Simon Lloyd (2020-2024): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Public Health and Environment.
Adrià Mas Dalmases (2023): Software Engineer, MSc Computational Biomedical Engineering, BSc Human Biology.
Ferran Pegenaute (2022-2023): Software Engineer, MSc Bioinformatics for Health Sciences, BSc Human Biology.
Cynthia Abarrategui (2020-2022): Project Manager, PhD Biomedicine.
Desislava Petrova (2019-2021): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Climate Dynamics.
Èrica Martínez-Solanas (2019-2020): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Environmental Epidemiology.
Vijendra Ingole (2017-2019): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Environmental Epidemiology.
Anna Deluca (2018-2019): Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD Climate Dynamics.
Ramon Requena (2017-2018): Master Student, MSc Environmental Epidemiology.