Health Co-Benefits of Green Building Design Strategies and Community Resilience to Urban Flooding: A Systematic Review of the Evidence

Adele Houghton and Carlos Castillo-Salgado
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Adele Houghton: Biositu, LLC, 505D W Alabama St, Houston, TX 77006, USA
Carlos Castillo-Salgado: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-28

Abstract: Climate change is increasingly exacerbating existing population health hazards, as well as resulting in new negative health effects. Flooding is one particularly deadly example of its amplifying and expanding effect on public health. This systematic review considered evidence linking green building strategies in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ® (LEED) Rating System with the potential to reduce negative health outcomes following exposure to urban flooding events. Queries evaluated links between LEED credit requirements and risk of exposure to urban flooding, environmental determinants of health, co-benefits to public health outcomes, and co-benefits to built environment outcomes. Public health co-benefits to leveraging green building design to enhance flooding resilience included: improving the interface between humans and wildlife and reducing the risk of waterborne disease, flood-related morbidity and mortality, and psychological harm. We conclude that collaborations among the public health, climate change, civil society, and green building sectors to enhance community resilience to urban flooding could benefit population health.

Keywords: urban flood-related hazards; sustainable design; climate change mitigation; climate change adaptation; sustainable communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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