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Urban Heat and Disease Control

Living in urban spaces has advantages of walkability, access to public transportation, and access to healthcare. The consequences of higher population density during an epidemic, though, could have detrimental impacts on infection rates of all residents and death rates of specifically residents of urban slums. This post will focus on the specifically acknowledging and methods of mitigating urban heat and its impacts on urban neighborhoods to prevent disease spread in the future.  To give a brief overview, heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires causes heat-related disease spread or simply heat strokes. The heatwave in Japan resulted in "over 20,000 hospital admissions" in just 2018 alone. Diseases are also much more likely to be spread in warmer, tropical climates such as Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, urban areas tend to form so called "urban heat islands", which is a bell curve representing the average temperature with its peak in urban centers and decreases as dista...
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Diving into Topic A : Preventing the Spread of Disease in Urban Areas

With diseases easily spreading between cities and nations, it is imperative that there is communication and united action on how to mitigate the spread.  From 2014-2016, the Ebola outbreak started in rural southeastern Guinea, spread through urban areas, and eventually became a global epidemic. One of the reasons why this disease spread so easily was that residents of Guinea moved through many cities and nations due to reasons of work or family. In addition, cultural beliefs and practices played a large role in the spread of Ebola. As people were dying from this disease, traditional burial and funeral practices brought families in contact with the deceased individual, continuing the spread of the disease. There was not a united action in how to address the epidemic and Ebola spread at a fast rate.  An example of an organization that places great emphasis in reshaping government communication and policies is the Resilient Cities Network. The Resilient Cities Network aims to add...
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Case Study: Building Inclusivity in Des Moines

The article referenced in this post can be found here . Feel free to read the article if you want more in-depth information before continuing! This article covers the second topic of our committee, Building Inclusive Cities for Disabled Persons. Although the message was directed at the Iowa climate planning team, it generally covers the dangers of not considering inclusivity when planning cities. They bring up how cities do not facilitate safe environments for disabled persons through their poorly designed infrastructure, which are tested to the extreme with natural disasters ranging from floods to an annual heatwave. The article brought many interesting reflections to the table. In power outages, there was no protocol or any accessible healthcare individuals could rely on, causing several to die and many to leave the state. Transportation not considering inclusive practices in Toronto and British Columbia led to innumerable and preventable deaths. Although these problems may sound sit...
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Introduction: Daewon Kwon

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H ey there, my name is Daewon Kwon and I’ll be one of your chairs for UN-Habitat at this year’s BMUN conference! This is my fifth year of MUN in general but this will be my first conference in Berkeley, so I look forward to the diverse solutions you’ll present in committee. I am a freshman studying Psychology and Data Science, with a focus on social psychology! From researching bias in pair programming environments to modeling data, I love to explore the intersection between technology and the study of our minds. Outside of school and BMUN, I love to free dive (I plan on getting scuba certified next semester), bake, lift, and enjoy pretty much any artistic hobby out there! I can’t wait to meet you all in committee!
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A Closer Look at UN Habitat

Hello and welcome to UN Habitat! We’re a couple weeks away from BMUN LXX, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to our committee. This post will be addressing a key question: what does UN Habitat actually do? How is it different from other committees? Urban development is very intersectional, encompassing many factors – including but not limited to social, economic, environmental, and technological sectors. With this, it’s easy to confuse what UN Habitat does with other UN committees because of the broadness of what it addresses. On UN Habitat’s website , they describe the four key roles of UN Habitat:  THINK: UN Habitat sets standards, proposes norms/principles, and monitors global policies related to the creation of sustainable cities. In their strategic plan , UN Habitat describes itself as a “solutions agent” to deliver change. An example of this is Habitat III’s New Urban Agenda for the building of inclusive communities. With regards to our topics, where are there gaps in the cre...
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Introduction: Tess U-Vongcharoen

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  Hi everyone!  My name is Tess U-Vongcharoen and I am excited to serve as one of your vice chairs for UN Habitat. This is my second year in BMUN, but I'm entering my eighth year in MUN. I attended BMUN as a high school student and it was one of my favorite conferences.  I am a second-year majoring in Data Science. Outside of BMUN, I work on social good consulting projects through Data Science Society and edit articles for a food magazine, Spoon University. I enjoy exploring new restaurants, swimming, and binge-watching Disney and Marvel movies.  I hope you will learn a lot at conference, while also having a memorable and fun experience. I'm excited to meet you all!
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Introduction: Amy Zhang

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Hi! My name is Amy Zhang, and I'll be serving as one of your chairs for UN Habitat this year at BMUN. This will be my first time chairing at BMUN, so I'm very excited to get to know all of you and listen to your discussions in the committee. I am a freshman at Berkeley intending to study public health with an interest in epidemiology, and adolescent mental health. Outside of BMUN, I'm also an interpreter for Cal VHIO, an organization that aims to improve access to healthcare for populations with limited English proficiency in the Bay Area. I also enjoy taking walks, watching movies and cooking videos, and exploring new restaurants around me.   I look forward to meeting you all soon! Amy
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