Cambridge, UNILAG Identify 10 Locations for Urban Heat Research in Lagos

Esther Oluku

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, in partnership with the University of Lagos (UNILAG), will lead a consortium of stakeholders in a three-year research to identify the negative health risks of extreme heat across 10 selected settlements in Lagos.

The deliberation was reached at a stakeholders meeting where the University of Cambridge, University of Lagos, the Lagos State Government, Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI), Lagos Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (LAMATA) as well as other ministries and agencies of the Lagos state government agreed to collaborate towards reimagining a cooler and healthier city which is the vision of the research themed ‘the Hotsteppers Project’ and is funded by Wellcome Trust.

Principal Investigator for the Hotsteppers Project and Chair, Global Public Health and Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Cambridge, Prof. Tolullah Oni, explained that the goal of the project is to spotlight the health risks posed by heat exposure and co-design infrastructure as well as lifestyle interventions to support healthier lived experiences for human societies.

“Over the next three years, we want to spotlight how heat connects to health in Lagos, the experiences of people who are moving through transit hubs, and the heat risks.

“We would also be looking at what cooling assets exists and we would bring all of that together with people’s lived experiences to then say, in a particular intervention site, what can we do very quickly, low cost, to reduce heat exposure in a way that is meaningful.

“The hope is that with the lessons that we learn here, it becomes something that LAMATA can use for its infrastructure projects. But beyond LAMATA, it becomes something that’s useful, from a health perspective, for the Lagos State Health and Climate Plan,” she said.

Co-Principal Investigator on the project and Professor of Geography, University of Lagos, Peter Elias, shared that through multi-stakeholder input, the project hopes to create solutions towards efficient heat adaptation in Lagos.

“Most of the climate adaptation plans and policies of the government did not embed heat. There is pollution, flooding, but heat has not been given a priority.

“So, I’m happy that our team is leading this project to really put out there the far-reaching implication of heat waves on different aspects of human life,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Climate Change and Secular Economy, Mrs. Titilayo Oshodi, said that the state government has a robust strategy in this regard while encouraging the investigators to incorporate insights from the state government’s plan to drive long term sustainability.

“Hotsteppers have their interventions centred around heat emissions and it is going to be part of the core benefits of the plans of Lagos state on climate action and on resilience. On building and on fostering resilience within the communities.

“Hotsteppers also need to take in what we have shared with them to expand the scope of what we are doing so that the insights that have been shared is integrated into their plan so that we can have a longer sustainable partnership together,” she said.