title: Climate information for public health: the role of the IRI climate data library in an integrated knowledge system.
abstract: Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the potential impact of climate variability and change on health outcomes. Protecting public health from the vagaries of climate requires new working relationships between the public health sector and the providers of climate data and information. The Climate Information for Public Health Action initiative at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is designed to increase the public health community's capacity to understand, use and demand appropriate climate data and climate information to mitigate the public health impacts of the climate. Significant challenges to building the capacity of health professionals to use climate information in research and decision-making include the difficulties experienced by many in accessing relevant and timely quality controlled data and information in formats that can be readily incorporated into specific analysis with other data sources. We present here the capacities of the IRI climate data library and show how we have used it to build an integrated knowledge system in the support of the use of climate and environmental information in climate-sensitive decision-making with respect to health. Initiated as an aid facilitating exploratory data analysis for climate scientists, the IRI climate data library has emerged as a powerful tool for interdisciplinary researchers focused on topics related to climate impacts on society, including health.
authors.affiliation: International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10983, USA. jdcorral@iri.columbia.edu
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: del Corral
authors.forename: M Benno
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Blumenthal
authors.forename: Gilma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mantilla
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ceccato
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Connor
authors.forename: Madeleine C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Thomson
mesh_terms: D057191:Capacity Building / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002980:Climate; D003625:Data Collection; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D062305:Geographic Mapping; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D038622:Internationality; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods