Sustainability And Resilience In The Indian Health System

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the importance of not only improving the resilience of health systems to crises but also of ensuring their long-term sustainability. The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) was established in 2020 with the goal of building more sustainable and resilient health systems around the world. One of the key objectives of PHSSR is to build knowledge, understanding, and consensus on the dimensions of health system sustainability and resilience, and how they can be improved. To achieve this goal, PHSSR focuses on seven key domains: Governance: the wide range of steering and rule-making related functions carried out by governments and decision-makers as they seek to achieve national health policy objectives. Financing: how health systems generate, pool, and allocate financial resources and pay for health services. Workforce: how health systems plan for, train, recruit, reward, and deploy their workforce, and shape the conditions in which health professionals work. Medicines and Technology: how health systems make use of medicines and (information) technologies in the delivery of health services. Service Delivery: how health services are organised and delivered, including ambulatory and hospital care, and public health. Population Health: how health systems address the social determinants of health and meet the needs and demands of the population. Environmental Sustainability: how health systems prevent and minimise their carbon footprint and the impacts of pollution on the population’s health. By examining each of these domains, PHSSR seeks to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to health systems and to generate evidence-informed solutions and policy recommendations to improve sustainability and resilience.

The health sector is known to be one of the major contributors towards the greenhouse gas emissions causing the climate crisis, the greatest health threat of the 21st century. This volume positions the health sector as a leader in the fight against climate change and explores the role of the health system in climate policy action. It delivers an overview of the linkages between climate change and the health sector, with chapters on the impact of climate change on health, its connection to pandemics, and its effects on food, nutrition and air quality, while examining gendered and other vulnerabilities. It delves into the different operational aspects of the health sector in India and details how each one can become climate-smart to reduce the health sector’s overall carbon footprint, by looking at sustainable procurement, green and resilient healthcare infrastructure, and the management of transportation, energy, water, waste, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and plastics in healthcare. Well supplemented with rigorous case studies, the book will be indispensable for students, teachers, and researchers of environmental studies, health sciences and climate change. It will be useful for healthcare workers, public health officials, healthcare leaders, policy planners and those interested in climate resilience and preparedness in the health sector. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Climate change is not only one of the greatest threats to modern civilization; it is also a great challenge to economic development in the 21st century. Global warming can lead to periods of both drought and intense rain, causing crops to fail and ruining the livelihoods of many in underdeveloped countries. The Handbook of Research on Climate Change Impact on Health and Environmental Sustainability is an authoritative reference source that offers a comprehensive and timely analysis of various aspects of global warming and its consequences. Featuring such topics as assessment of and adaption to climate change, water and its socio-economic impact, the environmental effects of climate change on human health, and the mitigation of climate change on both a local and global level, this expansive handbook is an essential reference source for students, researchers, academicians, engineers, government executives, and other practitioners looking to make a difference in the treatment of our environment. This publication features timely research on subjects including, but not limited to, climate change and its effect on both urbanization and the trade competitiveness of different regions, water-related diseases flourishing due to climate change, health risks and rethinking health service provision, losses from natural disasters, farmers’ views on the environment, drought management policies, groundwater resource management, trends in long-term rainfall, fishery management and productivity, preserving biodiversity, and sustainable forest use.

The book is about climate resilience and environmental sustainability approaches, discussing knowledge at global level and the local challenges, presented by authors from various countries. Environmental sustainability is at stake and implications of climate change are clearly visible in most parts of the world. In the times of the prevailing global environmental crisis, this book discusses key issues of climate change and sustainable energy alternatives, waste management and development. It discusses climate change scenario using simulation models in various Asian countries, signatures of climate change in Antarctica, implications in the Indian Ocean and the Indian scenario of REDD+. A special focus has been given on building climate resilience in our agricultural ecosystems and sustainable agriculture. It discusses the prospects and challenges of renewable energy options including biofuels and energy from wastewaters, explores the technical aspects of eco-friendly bioremediation of pollutants, sustainable solid waste management practices and challenges, carbon footprints of industry, and emphasizes on the significance of combining traditional knowledge with modern technology with novel approaches including involvement of social enterprises and corporate social responsibility to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This is an important document for researchers and policy makers working in multidisciplinary fields of sustainability sciences.

Sustainable development of smart cities infrastructures is of paramount importance and need to be planned, designed, constructed, operated and de-commissioned in a manner that ensures economic, social, environmental and institutional sustainability over the entire infrastructure life cycle. Smart cities infrastructure however be cost effective, disaster resilient, environmentally friendly, conserving natural resources, and sustainable ensuring faster delivery of quality and durable structures which include roads, building, bridges, energy and water infrastructures. Government of India is going to encourage Public Private Partnership (PPP) as an alternate option to build most of the infrastructures, which can be useful both for green-field as well as brown-field smart cities projects. The present book is a collection of contributed research and review papers presented at the ‘National Conference on Sustainable Development of Smart Cities Infrastructure’ (SDSCI-2023) held at National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra in May 2023.The subject matter is grouped into nine sessions which include research articles pertaining to sustainable development of smart cities, urban and rural planning, transportation, built environment and management, sustainable and smart technologies, materials, construction and maintenance, advance modelling, characterization of structures, energy and environment, performance of smart cities infrastructure under extreme loading conditions, green buildings, structural health monitoring, and ICT in smart cities, data mining and machine learning for sustainable infrastructure, GIS and remote sensing, future trends and prospects of smart cities, innovative technologies, building energy and efficiency and sobriety, and sustainable resilience to natural and man-made disasters, and smart materials, etc. The book would be a valuable reference for researchers, students, structural designers, site engineers, and all related engineers involved in the field of sustainable development of smart cities infrastructure.

Environmental Resilience and Transformation in Times of COVID-19: Climate Change Effects on Environmental Functionality is a timely reference to better understand environmental changes amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdowns. The book is organized into five themes: (1) environmental modifications, degradation, and human health risks; (2) water resources—planning, management, and governance; (3) air quality—monitoring, fate, transport, and drivers of socioenvironmental change; (4) marine and lacustrine environment; and (5) sustainable development goals and environmental justice. These themes provide an insight into the impact of COVID-19 on the environment and vice versa, which will help improve environmental management and planning, as well as influence future policies. Featuring many case studies from around the globe, this book offers a crucial examination of the intersectionality between climate, sustainability, the environment, and public health for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in environmental science. Features global case studies to illustrate themes and address issues to support environmental management Offers fundamental and practical understanding of ways to improve and validate predictive abilities and tools in addition to response Examines climate-related trends in the spread of the pandemic Presents different ways forward in order to achieve global goals with a specific focus on SDGs