This addendum to the 2017 State of Arizona Climate and Health Adaptation Plan (ACHAP) describes the progress on specific preparedness activities that protect the health and well-being of Arizonans from current and future climate sensitive hazards. As a means for providing brief updates, the scope of this addendum does not focus on public health data regarding environmental hazards and health effects such as extreme heat, fires, floods, drought, and vector borne diseases affected by temperature and precipitation. More information about these topics are described in prior Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) reports published online. Rather, this addendum focuses on initiatives currently taking place within Arizona.
With continued funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Climate Ready States and Cities Initiative, ADHS collaborated with local health departments and universities to implement activities identified under the first iteration of the ACHAP. Stakeholders contributed success stories detailing how they collaborated across multiple sectors, implemented pilot projects, and evaluated their efforts over the past year. These stories are meant to help disseminate lessons learned with the aim of informing other jurisdictions to facilitate implementation of effective adaptation actions against future extreme weather challenges facing public health. Additionally, these success stories provide evidence of the public health sector planning and preparing for extreme weather threats to human health.