TRIP Fellowship to strengthen the implementation of local heatwave planning in Victoria

Evidence demonstrates that heatwave plans are a vital approach to reduce the health consequences of heatwaves, the development and implementation of these plans at a local level is a critical step in order to reduce health risks and plans need to be regularly evaluated and revised in order to be effective. Evidence suggests that heatwave plans are not being appropriately implemented, evaluated or revised because deaths from heatwaves in Australia are greater than all other natural disasters combined; in 2009 heatwaves were estimated to have caused at least 374 deaths in Victoria alone. The gap that this TRIP project will focus on is to investigate why there are these deficiencies, and to fill this gap by ensuring that local governments are able to use the existing research to implement, evaluate, adapt and revise their own heatwave plans.