The Climaterna project will provide support for public policy makers.

Originally published in Jornal da Unicamp

Written by: Felipe Mateus
Image Editing: Alex Calixto, Paulo Cavalheri
Photography: Lúcio Camargo, Jonathan Borba/Unsplash

A new integrated data platform that allows visualization of the relationship between climate and maternal and perinatal health. This is the proposal of the Climaterna Project, developed by professors from Unicamp and the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Ufes) under the Research Center for Artificial Intelligence – Brazilian Institute of Data Science (BI0S) at the University. The tool aims to offer researchers, public managers, and policy makers the means to investigate and propose solutions in light of the potential negative effects of climate change on pregnancy and the health of mothers and babies. The platform is expected to start operating in early December, putting into practice a pioneering proposal to integrate this data and make it accessible to any user.

“The climate emergency will impact the way we live, especially the lives of the most vulnerable people,” says Rodolfo Pacagnella, professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) at Unicamp and project coordinator. According to the professor, international research of a type still incipient in Brazil indicates that factors such as heatwaves, cold spells, extreme events like heavy rains, and air pollution can increase the risk of premature births and affect maternal and perinatal health. Therefore, the group proposes that the platform provide the foundation for a permanent observatory on the relationship between climate and maternal and infant health.

Diversity of data

The idea of creating a tool enabling this type of data cross-referencing took shape from the intersection of two major research areas at BI0S: health and agriculture. “It is essentially an interdisciplinary effort,” emphasizes Pacagnella. According to the researcher, who also coordinates the health area of the center, the problems affecting mothers and babies, which can result in prematurity, perinatal and/or maternal death, stem from multiple factors, ranging from pathophysiological to healthcare and social. However, recent studies have pointed out that climate change may trigger these undesirable occurrences. “There is a gap in Brazil on this topic. We don’t have this information yet,” explains the professor, stressing that Unicamp has become a reference in research in this field.

The creation of the Climaterna Platform involved a process of searching for and curating demographic, climate, and health data from various sources. Demographic data, including birth and death rates, age, sex, and socioeconomic aspects, were collected from institutions such as the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE); health data, including indicators of maternal mortality, morbidity, preterm birth, and neonatal complications, were obtained from the Ministry of Health and hospital information systems; and climate and environmental data, such as temperature, rainfall index, extreme events, pollution, and air quality, were sourced from institutions like the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet), the National Water Agency (ANA), and the Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo (CETESB).

By integrating this data into a single tool, scientists will be able to map trends and identify patterns of vulnerability and risk involving climate conditions and maternal and perinatal health.

“We want to identify, for example, what can be considered a heatwave for pregnant women. Often, we assume that such an event occurs when the temperature exceeds a standard value. However, for pregnant women, this reference temperature may be lower,” explains Priscila Coltri, climatologist at the Center for Meteorological and Climatic Research Applied to Agriculture (Cepagri) at Unicamp and one of the coordinators of the BI0S agriculture area. The information, maps, and graphs will be available in an interactive visual dashboard, with easy access and navigation, allowing users to download raw data for use in other analyses. “We want people who are not experienced in working with large volumes of data to understand what the numbers are saying,” says Coltri.

The researchers note that integrating a large amount of data from different platforms was a challenge. “Between births and deaths, we have about 30 million records collected since 2011,” recalls Pacagnella. The climate data, however, required more refined curation, as specialists needed to understand the various sources and how the data was collected and processed. “Because of the climate crisis, and the lack of data, many institutions worldwide have created their own databases. This generates a huge volume of material that, many times, we don’t know how to use,” reports Coltri. The climatologist also mentions that many data collections are not long-term, making it difficult to gain a complete view of the situation, and there are areas in the country where no data is collected. “The integration of the databases is still in its early stages. The integrated vision we are aiming for will still take a few years.”

‘Practically a pregnancy’

The Climaterna Project aims to serve as a reference for an integrated approach to health, inspiring new studies and raising awareness about the importance of considering the effects of climate change in public planning. “If we manage to establish a climate model that correlates with preterm births, we can predict, for example, that during times of heatwaves in the Campinas region, there could be an increase in preterm births,” explains the coordinator. “This way, we can assess how the distribution of neonatal ICU [intensive care unit] beds in the hospital network is doing, for example.”

Pacagnella and Coltri also highlight the need for an interdisciplinary approach and integration between experts from various sectors around a common goal. “In my view, opportunities like this are where we can experience the university in its full potential,” says the professor, recalling that the project involved the direct work of 20 faculty members and researchers, including Cristiano Torezzan, Breno de França, and Everton Lima from Unicamp, and Alexandre Xavier from Ufes. Interestingly, the project took about nine months to develop. “It was practically a pregnancy,” he commented.