All Publications

  • Characterizing Heat Health Outcomes and Informing Public Health Interventions with Medical Claims Data in California. Environmental science & technology Bick, I. A., Hervey, G., Suckale, J. 2026

    Abstract

    Heat is now the deadliest weather hazard in the United States. California faces this hazard in two forms, acute heat waves affecting millions and chronic exposure, which affects its large agricultural workforce. The state directs climate resilience resources using tools such as composite vulnerability indices and competitive grant programs. Whether these instruments reach the communities actually experiencing heat-related illness has not been systematically tested against health outcomes. We map heat-related Medicaid claims across California ZIP codes from 2011 to 2019 to evaluate who bears the health burden of heat, how well existing vulnerability indices capture it, and whether state grant funding reaches the highest-burden communities. We show that ZIP codes with the highest claim rates have lower median incomes, more farmworkers, and more mobile homes than the state average. Heat-related claim rates rise 24.4% per 1 °C in majority-cropland ZIP codes, compared with 20.6% per 1 °C in majority built-up areas. Of three vulnerability indices tested, only the CDC heat and health index, which itself incorporates emergency room data, correlates strongly with observed claim rates. Our analysis suggests that State Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program funding broadly tracks county-level claim counts, but several high-burden counties, including Kern, Fresno, and Imperial, are substantially underfunded. We conclude that using medical claims data in conjunction with indices could lead to a more effective allocation of funding to communities experiencing heat risk in California than considering indices alone.

    View details for DOI 10.1021/acs.est.6c02011

    View details for PubMedID 42361006

  • Large- scale avian vocalization detection delivers reliable global biodiversity insights PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Sethi, S. S., Bick, A., Chen, M., Crouzeilles, R., Hillier, B. V., Lawson, J., Lee, C., Liu, S., Parruco, C., Rosten, C. M., Somveille, M., Tuanmu, M., Banks-Leite, C. 2024; 121 (33): e2420476121

    View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2315933121

    View details for Web of Science ID 001352410200004

    View details for PubMedID 39661057

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11665885

  • Snowmobile noise alters bird vocalization patterns during winter and pre-breeding season JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY Cretois, B., Bick, I., Balantic, C., Gelderblom, F. B., Pavon-Jordan, D., Wiel, J., Sethi, S. S., Betchkal, D. H., Banet, B., Rosten, C. M., Reinen, T. 2024; 61 (2): 340-350

    View details for DOI 10.1111/1365-2664.14564

    View details for Web of Science ID 001124219300001

  • When floods hit the road: Resilience to flood-related traffic disruption in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Science advances Kasmalkar, I. G., Serafin, K. A., Miao, Y., Bick, I. A., Ortolano, L., Ouyang, D., Suckale, J. 2020; 6 (32): eaba2423

    Abstract

    As sea level rises, urban traffic networks in low-lying coastal areas face increasing risks of flood disruptions. Closure of flooded roads causes employee absences and delays, creating cascading impacts to communities. We integrate a traffic model with flood maps that represent potential combinations of storm surges, tides, seasonal cycles, interannual anomalies driven by large-scale climate variability such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and sea level rise. When identifying inundated roads, we propose corrections for potential biases arising from model integration. Our results for the San Francisco Bay Area show that employee absences are limited to the homes and workplaces within the areas of inundation, while delays propagate far inland. Communities with limited availability of alternate roads experience long delays irrespective of their proximity to the areas of inundation. We show that metric reach, a measure of road network density, is a better proxy for delays than flood exposure.

    View details for DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aba2423

    View details for PubMedID 32821823

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8007-9649