As part of the ongoing capacity-building activities, this session introduced and compared three widely used tools for Health Impact Assessment (HIA): WHO AirQ+, BenMAP, and an R-based analysis pipeline. Participants explored how these tools can be applied in climate and health research and how to select appropriate approaches for different analytical needs.
The session featured demonstrations highlighting the different strengths and applications of each tool:
- Mr Joshua Horsley – WHO AirQ+: a user-friendly tool developed by the World Health Organization for estimating the health burden attributable to air pollution exposure. The tool is widely used for public health assessments and policy-focused analyses.
- Mr Neal Fann – BenMAP: the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which supports estimation of both health and economic impacts associated with changes in air quality.
- Ms Cassandra Yuen – R-based HIA pipeline: a flexible and fully customisable workflow for exposure assessment and health burden estimation, allowing integration of climate, demographic, and spatial datasets within reproducible analytical frameworks.
The demonstrations were supported by a real-world Indonesia PM2.5 mortality case study (1998–2020), illustrating the application of exposure assessment methods in a complex climate and health setting.
A cross-tool comparison framework was also developed as a reference resource to support future consortium analyses and methodological harmonisation across partner countries.
