Key Features
•Examines a broad scope of relevant issues to create common understanding in the ... more Key Features
•Examines a broad scope of relevant issues to create common understanding in the ecosystem services community
•Includes contributions from several backgrounds, providing a broad, multidisciplinary view
•Offers recommendations to develop a thorough understanding and management of ecosystem services based on tools and research in larger territories as well as on local scales
Description
Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices covers scientific input, socioeconomic considerations, and governance issues on ecosystem services. This book provides hands-on transdisciplinary reflections by administrators and sector representatives involved in the ecosystem service community. Ecosystem Services develops shared approaches and scientific methods to achieve knowledge-based sustainable planning and management of ecosystem services.
Professionals engaged in ecosystem service implementation have two options: de-emphasize the ecological and socioeconomic complexity and advance in the theoretical, abstract field, or try to develop research that is policy relevant and inclusive in an uncertain environment. This book provides a wide overview of issues at stake, of interest for any professional wishing to develop a broader view on ecosystem service science and practice.
Readership
Aademicians conducting interdisciplinary ecosystem service research, practitioners and policy makers aiming to incorporate ecosystem services into their work, and students from natural and social sciences
The field of environmental health is faced with quite some challenges both due to complexity and ... more The field of environmental health is faced with quite some challenges both due to complexity and social importance. The social importance seems obvious as it concerns public health issues of great concern to many if not all of us. Still, what we know or suspect regarding environmental health risks does not easily result in measures that solve underlying problems. Partly this has to do with the fact that what we know of these complex issues is often disputed. There is no consensus about scientific proof for many environmental health risks. But even when there seems wide support for scientific conclusions about health risks, decisions that potentially lead to solutions are not easily agreed upon. In this PhD thesis the challenge of practically dealing with these issues was investigated over several years of policy relevant research in the context of two environmental health research projects: the Flemish Centre of Expertise for Health and Environment (http://www.milieu-en-gezondheid.be/English/index.html) and the FP6 EU HENVINET project (http://henvinet.nilu.no/).
Introduction p.5 Background, the natural relation between biodiversity and public health p.6-10 S... more Introduction p.5 Background, the natural relation between biodiversity and public health p.6-10 Scientific Advisory Commitee p.11 Keynote speakers p.12-15 Workshops p.16-32 Workshop 'Vector-borne diseases, diversity and public health' p.18-20 Workshop 'Spatial tools for studying environment and health' p.21-23 Workshop 'Biodiversity and Food' p.24-27 Workshop 'Nature experience and the Question of Health' p.28-29 Workshop 'Public health as an ecosystem service indicator' p.30-32 Panel discussion and closure of the conference p.33 Posters p.34-43 Participants Evaluation p.44-49 Follow-up p.50 Policy Brief p.51-53 Photos p.54 Appendixes: Programme and Particpants list p.55-57 References p.58-61
Table of contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Focus on the combination of family life and business life 1.... more Table of contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Focus on the combination of family life and business life 1.2 The project Family & Business Audit 2 Background and starting points 2.1 Project Background 2.2 Basic concepts 2.2.1 Integrated approach 2.2.2 Management sciences 2.2.3 Social audit 2.3 Reconciliation between Work and Family Life 2.4 Starting points of the Family & Business Audit 3 Instrument of diagnosis 3.1 Research questions 3.2 The daily life within the family and the company 3.3 Division of tasks, means and company arrangements 3.4 Common policy space: obstacles and incentives 3.5 Definition and data-collection 3.6 Course of the diagnosis in a case study 4 Further steps 4.1 Starting points for the management plan 4.2 Approach of the management plan 4.3 Benchmarking and policy recommendations 5 Sister instruments Family & Business Audit 6 Fieldwork 6.1 Confrontation of the FBA with practice: case studies 6.2 Bringing the discussion at a broader level: the open forum campaign 7 Conclusions Literature
Page 1. 172 TEEB FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL POLICY MAKERS CHAPTER 10 · MAKING YOUR NATURAL CAPITAL WO... more Page 1. 172 TEEB FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL POLICY MAKERS CHAPTER 10 · MAKING YOUR NATURAL CAPITAL WORK FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT Which window leads to the best policy option? Successful strategies ...
... The project of transition: testing a theoretical proposition. Nilsson, M.; Keune, Hans; Ligtv... more ... The project of transition: testing a theoretical proposition. Nilsson, M.; Keune, Hans; Ligtvoet, A.; Ronneberger, K.; Helm, van der, R.; Caggiano, M. (in: Puzzle-solving for policy; 2: Proceedings of the EU Advanced Summer Course in Integrated Assessment Methodology, 1-12 ...
Decade-old (1) and recent warnings for coronaviruses with zoonotic epidemic potential (2) could h... more Decade-old (1) and recent warnings for coronaviruses with zoonotic epidemic potential (2) could have prevented the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (3). We therefore agree with Watsa and colleagues ("Rigorous wildlife disease surveillance," Perspective, 10 July, p. 145) that wildlife biosurveillance should increase. However, representing animals as a threat to humans through disease transmission leads to ill-conceived reactive policies (4). A perspective (5) in which animals and humans share similar risks of pathogens and infections, making animals relevant disease models and sentinels, would be more effective. Clarifying the connection between animal and human health could increase public support for research seeking to understand host-switching in animals, such as the study of virus evolution (6), interactions in pathogen communities (7), and pathogen discovery (8). A shared-risk perspective on emerging infectious diseases mirrors the field of EcoHealth, which explores the links between ecosystem, animal, and human health. Such strategies place value in healthy ecosystems through an integrative LETTERS approach that considers both pathogen biodiversity and social-ecological drivers (9). Prevention based on understanding the transmission of pathogens through EcoHealth-based emerging infectious disease surveillance is a promising avenue for sustainability science, orders of magnitude cheaper than mitigation in response to a transfer to human hosts (10), and less intrusive than current crisis responses.
We share many of the views of de Groot et al. on the relevance of ecosystem services (ES) and the... more We share many of the views of de Groot et al. on the relevance of ecosystem services (ES) and the constructive role they have played in highlighting the importance of nature to people. Here we aim to further clarify how the concept of Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP) contributes to science and policy.It was not the aim of our article to review the literature on ecosystem services (ES). The point of our article was to explain the concept of NCP not to review the extensive ES literature. We are in full agreement that the influence of ES has been long and rich, from its first mention in the peer-reviewed literature (1) to the present. As explicitly stated in our articles (2, 3) and further clarified in our figure S1, the IPBES approach owes much to the influence of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (4). The NCP framing has a number of elements that were present in the MA, as well as new elements.Ecosystem services are a subset of NCP, but there is more to NCP than ES. Beyon...
The atmosphere and the ocean exchange gases resulting in an overall absorption of CO 2 in the oce... more The atmosphere and the ocean exchange gases resulting in an overall absorption of CO 2 in the ocean Burning fossil fuels, industry and changes in land uses (deforestation, landfill , fires and/or agriculture), and respiration by humans and animals releases extra CO 2 and CH 4 to the atmosphere Plants within terrestrial forests, tidal marsh, mangrove and seagrass ecosystems sequester CO 2 through photosynthesis, which accumulates in their biomass and soils CO 2 , CH 4 CO 2 , CH 4 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 Photosynthesis by plankton in the ocean sequester Export of plant and macroalgal biomass in the deep ocean sequesters CO 2 FIGURE 28.1 Conceptual diagram of carbon sequestration by blue carbon ecosystems and some of the activities that influence CO 2 exchange among the atmosphere, soil, and ocean in coastal areas and the open ocean. The major global C pools include the atmosphere, oceans, fossil fuels, vegetation, soils, and detritus. Landfill, smokestacks, cattle farming, and other human activities result in additional methane (CH 4) emissions. 28. CONSERVATION OF BLUE CARBON ECOSYSTEMS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE 966 VII. COASTAL WETLAND SUSTAINABILITY seagrass ecosystems occupying less than 0.2% of the seabed area, they contribute nearly 50% of the CO 2 sequestration in marine sediments, and their C sequestration rates exceed those in the soils of many terrestrial ecosystems by 30-to 50-fold (Chmura et al., 2003; Duarte et al. 2005, 2013; Mcleod et al., 2011). Most macroalgal communities grow on rocky substrate and do not form significant in situ sedimentary C deposits, but the initial estimates of the amount of macroalgae C sequestered in sediments and deep-sea waters suggest that it is comparable to the C sequestered by all other BC ecosystems combined (Krause-Jensen and Duarte, 2016). Furthermore, the C captured by BC ecosystems is stored in marine soils for millennia, rather than the decades or centuries typical of terrestrial forests. This is due in part to the high rates of vertical accretion in tidal marsh, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems, ranging from 0.4 to 21 mm year À1 (Mateo et al., 1997; McKee et al., 2007; Duarte et al., 2013). This process of raising the seafloor is driven partly through the trapping and settling of particles from the water column and partly through organic matter production. This acts to bury the C in anoxic conditions, thereby slowing down its remineralization by microbes (Krauss et al., 2014; Mateo et al., 2006; Pedersen et al., 2011). Globally, tidal marsh, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems sequester annually a similar amount of C to terrestrial forests, despite their extent being less than 3% of that of forests (Duarte et al., 2013). Unlike terrestrial forests, mangroves and tidal marshes rarely burn in wildfires, although they are exposed to other disturbances (e.g., tropical storms). BC ecosystems provide important and valuable ecosystem services critical for climate change mitigation and adaptation, including coastal protection from storms and shoreline erosion, regulation of water quality, provision of habitat for commercially important fisheries and enhancing biodiversity, and being globally significant C sinks (
The practice of mapping ecosystem services (ES) in relation to health outcomes is only in its ear... more The practice of mapping ecosystem services (ES) in relation to health outcomes is only in its early developing phases. Examples are provided of health outcomes, health proxies and related biophysical indicators. This chapter also covers main health mapping challenges, design options and participatory ES – health mapping.
Burnout is, besides a global, complex phenomenon, a public health issue with negative consequence... more Burnout is, besides a global, complex phenomenon, a public health issue with negative consequences on personal, organizational, social, and economic levels. This paper outlines the co-design of a novel Nature-based Burnout Coaching intervention, called NABUCO. Due to the complexity of burnout, we propose a One Health approach in healthcare, educational and governmental pilot organizations, to deliver guidelines and protocols for prevention and recovery of burnout. We advocate the inclusion of the salutogenic and mutual healing capacity of nature connectedness, facilitating a positive impact on mental and environmental health. A transdisciplinary Participative Action Research-design resulted in an iterative adaptive cycle of co-design, implementation, and evaluation of NABUCO.
Mental well-being in cities is being challenged worldwide and a more detailed understanding of ho... more Mental well-being in cities is being challenged worldwide and a more detailed understanding of how urban environments influence mental well-being is needed. This qualitative study explores neighborhood factors and their interactions in relation to mental well-being. Individual semi-structured walking interviews were conducted with 28 adults living in the Brussels-Capital Region. This paper provides a detailed description of physical neighborhood factors (green-blue spaces, services, design and maintenance, traffic, cellphone towers) and social neighborhood factors (neighbor ties, neighbor diversity, social security) that link to mental well-being. A socioecological framework is presented to explain interactions among those neighborhood factors, and personal and institutional factors, in relation to mental well-being. The findings are linked to existing concepts and theories to better understand the mechanisms underlying the associations between the urban neighborhood environment and mental well-being. Finally, implications of the walking interview method are discussed.
IntroductionMental health issues appear as a growing problem in modern societies and tend to be m... more IntroductionMental health issues appear as a growing problem in modern societies and tend to be more frequent in big cities. Where increased evidence exists for positive links between nature and mental health, associations between urban environment characteristics and mental health are still not well understood. These associations are highly complex and require an interdisciplinary and integrated research approach to cover the broad range of mitigating factors. This article presents the study protocol of a project called Nature Impact on Mental Health Distribution that aims to generate a comprehensive understanding of associations between mental health and the urban residential environment.Methods and analysisFollowing a mixed-method approach, this project combines quantitative and qualitative research. In the quantitative part, we analyse among the Brussels urban population associations between the urban residential environment and mental health, taking respondents’ socioeconomic s...
Environmental health : a global access science source, Jan 28, 2012
The EU 6th Framework Program (FP)-funded Health and Environment Network (HENVINET) aimed to suppo... more The EU 6th Framework Program (FP)-funded Health and Environment Network (HENVINET) aimed to support informed policy making by facilitating the availability of relevant knowledge on different environmental health issues. An approach was developed by which scientific agreement, disagreement, and knowledge gaps could be efficiently identified, and expert advice prepared in a way that is usable for policy makers. There were two aims of the project: 1) to apply the tool to a relevant issue; the potential health impacts of the widely used plasticizers, phthalates, and 2) to evaluate the method and the tool by asking both scientific experts and the target audience, namely policy makers and stakeholders, for their opinions. The tool consisted of an expert consultation in several steps on the issue of phthalates in environmental health. A diagram depicting the cause-effect chain, from the production and use of phthalates to potential health impacts, was prepared based on existing reviews. Th...
Environmental health : a global access science source, Jan 28, 2012
For almost 20 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been assessing the potenti... more For almost 20 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been assessing the potential health risks associated with climate change; with increasingly convincing evidence that climate change presents existing impacts on human health. In industrialized countries climate change may further affect public health and in particular respiratory health, through existing health stressors, including, anticipated increased number of deaths and acute morbidity due to heat waves; increased frequency of cardiopulmonary events due to higher concentrations of air pollutants; and altered spatial and temporal distribution of allergens and some infectious disease vectors. Additionally exposure to moulds and contaminants from water damaged buildings may increase. We undertook an expert elicitation amongst European researchers engaged in environmental medicine or respiratory health. All experts were actively publishing researchers on lung disease and air pollution, climate and health or a cl...
Environmental health : a global access science source, Jan 28, 2012
The FP6 EU HENVINET project aimed at synthesizing the scientific information available on a numbe... more The FP6 EU HENVINET project aimed at synthesizing the scientific information available on a number of topics of high relevance to policy makers in environment and health. The goal of the current paper is to reflect on the methodology that was used in the project, in view of exploring the usefulness of this and similar methodologies to the policy process. The topics investigated included health impacts of the brominated flame retardants decabrominated diphenylether (decaBDE) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), phthalates highlighting di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), the pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF), nanoparticles, the impacts of climate change on asthma and other respiratory disorders, and the influence of environment health stressors on cancer induction. Initially the focus was on identifying knowledge gaps in the state of the art in scientific knowledge. Literature reviews covered all elements that compose the causal chain of the different environmental health issues from emissions...
Key Features
•Examines a broad scope of relevant issues to create common understanding in the ... more Key Features
•Examines a broad scope of relevant issues to create common understanding in the ecosystem services community
•Includes contributions from several backgrounds, providing a broad, multidisciplinary view
•Offers recommendations to develop a thorough understanding and management of ecosystem services based on tools and research in larger territories as well as on local scales
Description
Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices covers scientific input, socioeconomic considerations, and governance issues on ecosystem services. This book provides hands-on transdisciplinary reflections by administrators and sector representatives involved in the ecosystem service community. Ecosystem Services develops shared approaches and scientific methods to achieve knowledge-based sustainable planning and management of ecosystem services.
Professionals engaged in ecosystem service implementation have two options: de-emphasize the ecological and socioeconomic complexity and advance in the theoretical, abstract field, or try to develop research that is policy relevant and inclusive in an uncertain environment. This book provides a wide overview of issues at stake, of interest for any professional wishing to develop a broader view on ecosystem service science and practice.
Readership
Aademicians conducting interdisciplinary ecosystem service research, practitioners and policy makers aiming to incorporate ecosystem services into their work, and students from natural and social sciences
The field of environmental health is faced with quite some challenges both due to complexity and ... more The field of environmental health is faced with quite some challenges both due to complexity and social importance. The social importance seems obvious as it concerns public health issues of great concern to many if not all of us. Still, what we know or suspect regarding environmental health risks does not easily result in measures that solve underlying problems. Partly this has to do with the fact that what we know of these complex issues is often disputed. There is no consensus about scientific proof for many environmental health risks. But even when there seems wide support for scientific conclusions about health risks, decisions that potentially lead to solutions are not easily agreed upon. In this PhD thesis the challenge of practically dealing with these issues was investigated over several years of policy relevant research in the context of two environmental health research projects: the Flemish Centre of Expertise for Health and Environment (http://www.milieu-en-gezondheid.be/English/index.html) and the FP6 EU HENVINET project (http://henvinet.nilu.no/).
Introduction p.5 Background, the natural relation between biodiversity and public health p.6-10 S... more Introduction p.5 Background, the natural relation between biodiversity and public health p.6-10 Scientific Advisory Commitee p.11 Keynote speakers p.12-15 Workshops p.16-32 Workshop 'Vector-borne diseases, diversity and public health' p.18-20 Workshop 'Spatial tools for studying environment and health' p.21-23 Workshop 'Biodiversity and Food' p.24-27 Workshop 'Nature experience and the Question of Health' p.28-29 Workshop 'Public health as an ecosystem service indicator' p.30-32 Panel discussion and closure of the conference p.33 Posters p.34-43 Participants Evaluation p.44-49 Follow-up p.50 Policy Brief p.51-53 Photos p.54 Appendixes: Programme and Particpants list p.55-57 References p.58-61
Table of contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Focus on the combination of family life and business life 1.... more Table of contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Focus on the combination of family life and business life 1.2 The project Family & Business Audit 2 Background and starting points 2.1 Project Background 2.2 Basic concepts 2.2.1 Integrated approach 2.2.2 Management sciences 2.2.3 Social audit 2.3 Reconciliation between Work and Family Life 2.4 Starting points of the Family & Business Audit 3 Instrument of diagnosis 3.1 Research questions 3.2 The daily life within the family and the company 3.3 Division of tasks, means and company arrangements 3.4 Common policy space: obstacles and incentives 3.5 Definition and data-collection 3.6 Course of the diagnosis in a case study 4 Further steps 4.1 Starting points for the management plan 4.2 Approach of the management plan 4.3 Benchmarking and policy recommendations 5 Sister instruments Family & Business Audit 6 Fieldwork 6.1 Confrontation of the FBA with practice: case studies 6.2 Bringing the discussion at a broader level: the open forum campaign 7 Conclusions Literature
Page 1. 172 TEEB FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL POLICY MAKERS CHAPTER 10 · MAKING YOUR NATURAL CAPITAL WO... more Page 1. 172 TEEB FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL POLICY MAKERS CHAPTER 10 · MAKING YOUR NATURAL CAPITAL WORK FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT Which window leads to the best policy option? Successful strategies ...
... The project of transition: testing a theoretical proposition. Nilsson, M.; Keune, Hans; Ligtv... more ... The project of transition: testing a theoretical proposition. Nilsson, M.; Keune, Hans; Ligtvoet, A.; Ronneberger, K.; Helm, van der, R.; Caggiano, M. (in: Puzzle-solving for policy; 2: Proceedings of the EU Advanced Summer Course in Integrated Assessment Methodology, 1-12 ...
Decade-old (1) and recent warnings for coronaviruses with zoonotic epidemic potential (2) could h... more Decade-old (1) and recent warnings for coronaviruses with zoonotic epidemic potential (2) could have prevented the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (3). We therefore agree with Watsa and colleagues ("Rigorous wildlife disease surveillance," Perspective, 10 July, p. 145) that wildlife biosurveillance should increase. However, representing animals as a threat to humans through disease transmission leads to ill-conceived reactive policies (4). A perspective (5) in which animals and humans share similar risks of pathogens and infections, making animals relevant disease models and sentinels, would be more effective. Clarifying the connection between animal and human health could increase public support for research seeking to understand host-switching in animals, such as the study of virus evolution (6), interactions in pathogen communities (7), and pathogen discovery (8). A shared-risk perspective on emerging infectious diseases mirrors the field of EcoHealth, which explores the links between ecosystem, animal, and human health. Such strategies place value in healthy ecosystems through an integrative LETTERS approach that considers both pathogen biodiversity and social-ecological drivers (9). Prevention based on understanding the transmission of pathogens through EcoHealth-based emerging infectious disease surveillance is a promising avenue for sustainability science, orders of magnitude cheaper than mitigation in response to a transfer to human hosts (10), and less intrusive than current crisis responses.
We share many of the views of de Groot et al. on the relevance of ecosystem services (ES) and the... more We share many of the views of de Groot et al. on the relevance of ecosystem services (ES) and the constructive role they have played in highlighting the importance of nature to people. Here we aim to further clarify how the concept of Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP) contributes to science and policy.It was not the aim of our article to review the literature on ecosystem services (ES). The point of our article was to explain the concept of NCP not to review the extensive ES literature. We are in full agreement that the influence of ES has been long and rich, from its first mention in the peer-reviewed literature (1) to the present. As explicitly stated in our articles (2, 3) and further clarified in our figure S1, the IPBES approach owes much to the influence of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (4). The NCP framing has a number of elements that were present in the MA, as well as new elements.Ecosystem services are a subset of NCP, but there is more to NCP than ES. Beyon...
The atmosphere and the ocean exchange gases resulting in an overall absorption of CO 2 in the oce... more The atmosphere and the ocean exchange gases resulting in an overall absorption of CO 2 in the ocean Burning fossil fuels, industry and changes in land uses (deforestation, landfill , fires and/or agriculture), and respiration by humans and animals releases extra CO 2 and CH 4 to the atmosphere Plants within terrestrial forests, tidal marsh, mangrove and seagrass ecosystems sequester CO 2 through photosynthesis, which accumulates in their biomass and soils CO 2 , CH 4 CO 2 , CH 4 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 CO 2 Photosynthesis by plankton in the ocean sequester Export of plant and macroalgal biomass in the deep ocean sequesters CO 2 FIGURE 28.1 Conceptual diagram of carbon sequestration by blue carbon ecosystems and some of the activities that influence CO 2 exchange among the atmosphere, soil, and ocean in coastal areas and the open ocean. The major global C pools include the atmosphere, oceans, fossil fuels, vegetation, soils, and detritus. Landfill, smokestacks, cattle farming, and other human activities result in additional methane (CH 4) emissions. 28. CONSERVATION OF BLUE CARBON ECOSYSTEMS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE 966 VII. COASTAL WETLAND SUSTAINABILITY seagrass ecosystems occupying less than 0.2% of the seabed area, they contribute nearly 50% of the CO 2 sequestration in marine sediments, and their C sequestration rates exceed those in the soils of many terrestrial ecosystems by 30-to 50-fold (Chmura et al., 2003; Duarte et al. 2005, 2013; Mcleod et al., 2011). Most macroalgal communities grow on rocky substrate and do not form significant in situ sedimentary C deposits, but the initial estimates of the amount of macroalgae C sequestered in sediments and deep-sea waters suggest that it is comparable to the C sequestered by all other BC ecosystems combined (Krause-Jensen and Duarte, 2016). Furthermore, the C captured by BC ecosystems is stored in marine soils for millennia, rather than the decades or centuries typical of terrestrial forests. This is due in part to the high rates of vertical accretion in tidal marsh, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems, ranging from 0.4 to 21 mm year À1 (Mateo et al., 1997; McKee et al., 2007; Duarte et al., 2013). This process of raising the seafloor is driven partly through the trapping and settling of particles from the water column and partly through organic matter production. This acts to bury the C in anoxic conditions, thereby slowing down its remineralization by microbes (Krauss et al., 2014; Mateo et al., 2006; Pedersen et al., 2011). Globally, tidal marsh, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems sequester annually a similar amount of C to terrestrial forests, despite their extent being less than 3% of that of forests (Duarte et al., 2013). Unlike terrestrial forests, mangroves and tidal marshes rarely burn in wildfires, although they are exposed to other disturbances (e.g., tropical storms). BC ecosystems provide important and valuable ecosystem services critical for climate change mitigation and adaptation, including coastal protection from storms and shoreline erosion, regulation of water quality, provision of habitat for commercially important fisheries and enhancing biodiversity, and being globally significant C sinks (
The practice of mapping ecosystem services (ES) in relation to health outcomes is only in its ear... more The practice of mapping ecosystem services (ES) in relation to health outcomes is only in its early developing phases. Examples are provided of health outcomes, health proxies and related biophysical indicators. This chapter also covers main health mapping challenges, design options and participatory ES – health mapping.
Burnout is, besides a global, complex phenomenon, a public health issue with negative consequence... more Burnout is, besides a global, complex phenomenon, a public health issue with negative consequences on personal, organizational, social, and economic levels. This paper outlines the co-design of a novel Nature-based Burnout Coaching intervention, called NABUCO. Due to the complexity of burnout, we propose a One Health approach in healthcare, educational and governmental pilot organizations, to deliver guidelines and protocols for prevention and recovery of burnout. We advocate the inclusion of the salutogenic and mutual healing capacity of nature connectedness, facilitating a positive impact on mental and environmental health. A transdisciplinary Participative Action Research-design resulted in an iterative adaptive cycle of co-design, implementation, and evaluation of NABUCO.
Mental well-being in cities is being challenged worldwide and a more detailed understanding of ho... more Mental well-being in cities is being challenged worldwide and a more detailed understanding of how urban environments influence mental well-being is needed. This qualitative study explores neighborhood factors and their interactions in relation to mental well-being. Individual semi-structured walking interviews were conducted with 28 adults living in the Brussels-Capital Region. This paper provides a detailed description of physical neighborhood factors (green-blue spaces, services, design and maintenance, traffic, cellphone towers) and social neighborhood factors (neighbor ties, neighbor diversity, social security) that link to mental well-being. A socioecological framework is presented to explain interactions among those neighborhood factors, and personal and institutional factors, in relation to mental well-being. The findings are linked to existing concepts and theories to better understand the mechanisms underlying the associations between the urban neighborhood environment and mental well-being. Finally, implications of the walking interview method are discussed.
IntroductionMental health issues appear as a growing problem in modern societies and tend to be m... more IntroductionMental health issues appear as a growing problem in modern societies and tend to be more frequent in big cities. Where increased evidence exists for positive links between nature and mental health, associations between urban environment characteristics and mental health are still not well understood. These associations are highly complex and require an interdisciplinary and integrated research approach to cover the broad range of mitigating factors. This article presents the study protocol of a project called Nature Impact on Mental Health Distribution that aims to generate a comprehensive understanding of associations between mental health and the urban residential environment.Methods and analysisFollowing a mixed-method approach, this project combines quantitative and qualitative research. In the quantitative part, we analyse among the Brussels urban population associations between the urban residential environment and mental health, taking respondents’ socioeconomic s...
Environmental health : a global access science source, Jan 28, 2012
The EU 6th Framework Program (FP)-funded Health and Environment Network (HENVINET) aimed to suppo... more The EU 6th Framework Program (FP)-funded Health and Environment Network (HENVINET) aimed to support informed policy making by facilitating the availability of relevant knowledge on different environmental health issues. An approach was developed by which scientific agreement, disagreement, and knowledge gaps could be efficiently identified, and expert advice prepared in a way that is usable for policy makers. There were two aims of the project: 1) to apply the tool to a relevant issue; the potential health impacts of the widely used plasticizers, phthalates, and 2) to evaluate the method and the tool by asking both scientific experts and the target audience, namely policy makers and stakeholders, for their opinions. The tool consisted of an expert consultation in several steps on the issue of phthalates in environmental health. A diagram depicting the cause-effect chain, from the production and use of phthalates to potential health impacts, was prepared based on existing reviews. Th...
Environmental health : a global access science source, Jan 28, 2012
For almost 20 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been assessing the potenti... more For almost 20 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been assessing the potential health risks associated with climate change; with increasingly convincing evidence that climate change presents existing impacts on human health. In industrialized countries climate change may further affect public health and in particular respiratory health, through existing health stressors, including, anticipated increased number of deaths and acute morbidity due to heat waves; increased frequency of cardiopulmonary events due to higher concentrations of air pollutants; and altered spatial and temporal distribution of allergens and some infectious disease vectors. Additionally exposure to moulds and contaminants from water damaged buildings may increase. We undertook an expert elicitation amongst European researchers engaged in environmental medicine or respiratory health. All experts were actively publishing researchers on lung disease and air pollution, climate and health or a cl...
Environmental health : a global access science source, Jan 28, 2012
The FP6 EU HENVINET project aimed at synthesizing the scientific information available on a numbe... more The FP6 EU HENVINET project aimed at synthesizing the scientific information available on a number of topics of high relevance to policy makers in environment and health. The goal of the current paper is to reflect on the methodology that was used in the project, in view of exploring the usefulness of this and similar methodologies to the policy process. The topics investigated included health impacts of the brominated flame retardants decabrominated diphenylether (decaBDE) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), phthalates highlighting di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), the pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF), nanoparticles, the impacts of climate change on asthma and other respiratory disorders, and the influence of environment health stressors on cancer induction. Initially the focus was on identifying knowledge gaps in the state of the art in scientific knowledge. Literature reviews covered all elements that compose the causal chain of the different environmental health issues from emissions...
The relation between the concept of ecosystem services and practice is a moving target: a dynamic... more The relation between the concept of ecosystem services and practice is a moving target: a dynamic field of operation, experimentation, discourse and concern, and many challenges and ambitions. We have asked a diversity of ‘real world’ actors for their reflections on the usefulness of the concept of ecosystem services for their practice. The fact that we are able to present quite a diversity of contributions from (mainly local and some international) non-academic actors illustrates the current interest. We present some key challenges based on these reflections.
Background: Organophosphate pesticides are widely used on food crops grown in the EU. While they ... more Background: Organophosphate pesticides are widely used on food crops grown in the EU. While they have been banned from indoor use in the US for a decade due to adverse health effects, they are still the most prevalent pesticides in the EU, with Chlorpyrifos (CPF) being the most commonly applied. It has been suggested CPF affects neurodevelopment even at levels below toxicity guidelines. Younger individuals may be more susceptible than adults due to biological factors and exposure settings.
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Books by Hans Keune
•Examines a broad scope of relevant issues to create common understanding in the ecosystem services community
•Includes contributions from several backgrounds, providing a broad, multidisciplinary view
•Offers recommendations to develop a thorough understanding and management of ecosystem services based on tools and research in larger territories as well as on local scales
Description
Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices covers scientific input, socioeconomic considerations, and governance issues on ecosystem services. This book provides hands-on transdisciplinary reflections by administrators and sector representatives involved in the ecosystem service community. Ecosystem Services develops shared approaches and scientific methods to achieve knowledge-based sustainable planning and management of ecosystem services.
Professionals engaged in ecosystem service implementation have two options: de-emphasize the ecological and socioeconomic complexity and advance in the theoretical, abstract field, or try to develop research that is policy relevant and inclusive in an uncertain environment. This book provides a wide overview of issues at stake, of interest for any professional wishing to develop a broader view on ecosystem service science and practice.
Readership
Aademicians conducting interdisciplinary ecosystem service research, practitioners and policy makers aiming to incorporate ecosystem services into their work, and students from natural and social sciences
Papers by Hans Keune
•Examines a broad scope of relevant issues to create common understanding in the ecosystem services community
•Includes contributions from several backgrounds, providing a broad, multidisciplinary view
•Offers recommendations to develop a thorough understanding and management of ecosystem services based on tools and research in larger territories as well as on local scales
Description
Ecosystem Services: Global Issues, Local Practices covers scientific input, socioeconomic considerations, and governance issues on ecosystem services. This book provides hands-on transdisciplinary reflections by administrators and sector representatives involved in the ecosystem service community. Ecosystem Services develops shared approaches and scientific methods to achieve knowledge-based sustainable planning and management of ecosystem services.
Professionals engaged in ecosystem service implementation have two options: de-emphasize the ecological and socioeconomic complexity and advance in the theoretical, abstract field, or try to develop research that is policy relevant and inclusive in an uncertain environment. This book provides a wide overview of issues at stake, of interest for any professional wishing to develop a broader view on ecosystem service science and practice.
Readership
Aademicians conducting interdisciplinary ecosystem service research, practitioners and policy makers aiming to incorporate ecosystem services into their work, and students from natural and social sciences