Participatory Analytics for Climate-Health Adaptation in Disadvantaged Urban Communities in Brazil (PACHA)

Disadvantaged urban communities face compounded climate and data injustices: while disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, they remain largely invisible in official data and decision-making processes. In response, the PACHA project aims to inform city adaptation implementations by making visible and reducing the climate change impacts on the health and well-being of Brazilian favela urban communities. We address this through a transdisciplinary partnership between urban community leaders, policymakers, social scientists, climate scientists and health researchers to reveal and reduce climate-health impacts using a place-based focus on favela communities, and a gender, race and age-sensitive intersectional lens. Using a mixed-methods approach to participatory analytics, we combine climate and health data, intersectional multi-level analysis of impacts and vulnerabilities, and participatory action research with affected communities to translate lived experiences into citizen data. Participatory Urban Living Labs in three Brazilian cities (Curitiba, Natal, and Niterói) will engage multiple stakeholders in using our evidence to inform the implementation of municipal climate adaptation towards equitable health outcomes for disadvantaged communities. We will co-create an innovative digital platform and a methodological toolkit that can be adapted to support other cities in Brazil and Latin America, strengthening the capacity for enabling equitable, transformative climate-health adaptation.