The University of Tartu, Umea University, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), the Swedish meteorological and hydrological institute (SMHI) and CICERO Center for International Climate Research organise a workshop addressing health concerns of forest fires in perspective of climate change. We will discover the latest research findings and mitigation strategies to address health challenges from those disasters.
The workshop was recorded and can be watched here:
Date: 6th of December, 14.00-15.30 CET
Online workshop in TEAMS, free, registration required before Dec 4th, 2023
The link and calendar invite to the workshop will be sent to all registrees latest on the day before.
PROGRAMME
14.00–14.05 Welcome & introduction, Hans Orru, University of Tartu
14.05–14.30 Monitoring and prediction of fires and fire smoke at multiple scales. Mikhail Sofiev, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)
14.30–15.00 Exposure and health effects of the forest fires in Sweden 2018. Camilla Andersson, Swedish meteorological and hydrological institute (SMHI) and Bertil Forsberg, Umea University
15.00–15.25 Quantifying health impacts from forest fires in Europe for present and future scenarios, Sourangsu Chowdhury, CICERO Center for International Climate Research
15.25–15.30 Concluding remarks & synthesis
About the speakers:
Prof Mikhail Sofiev is a research professor in Atmospheric Composition Research department at the FMI and an Adjunct Professor at University of Helsinki. He has over 30 years of experience in development and application of air pollution models and related topics. M. Sofiev is a co-chair of WMO Scientific Advisory Group on Applications, member of WHO Technical Advisory Group, Steering Group of WMO Global Vegetation Fires and Smoke Pollution Warning and Assessment System, and Associate Editor of Atmospheric Environment. He is PI of SILAM modelling team and fire information system IS4IRES. M.Sofiev is an author of 184 peer-reviewed publications. M.Sofiev supervised 14 academic theses and participated in over 70 international research and application projects.
Dr Camilla Andersson is a docent and senior researcher at the Swedish meteorological and hydrological institute (SMHI) and the Swedish focal point alternate in IPCC. Her research has focused on air pollution exposure modeling and its impacts on health, ecosystems and climate. She has authored over 40 scientific papers, and is a steering committee member for ACTRIS Sweden and e.g. MMF-GTAD under WMO.
Prof Bertil Forsberg is professor of Environmental Medicine at Umea University with a special focus on health effects of air pollution, risk factors for respiratory disease and health effects of extreme temperatures. He is author of almost 300 papers in peer-review journals and has been a temporal advisor at WHO and several Swedish agencies, e.g. the Swedish EPA and the Public Health Agency.
Dr Sourangsu Chowdhury is a Senior Researcher at the CICERO Center for International Climate Research. He is an atmospheric scientist researching air pollution, heat stress and human health. He focuses on modeling air pollutants and heat using chemistry-climate models and satellite retrievals and assessing their effects on human health with a focus on identifying viable interventions to avoid these effects.
Chair:
Prof Hans Orru is a professor of environmental health at the University of Tartu. He is ENBEL project WP2 co-chair.
This workshop is part of the project ENBEL (Enhancing Belmont Research Action to support EU policy making on climate change and health) that coordinates a network of international health and climate research projects funded by Belmont Forum and the EU. ENBEL aims to contribute with knowledge and policy advice on climate change and health links to support adaptation and resilience.
For more information please contact: Hans.Orru@ut.ee