Wetlands and human health
Abstract
The book addresses the complex interactions that occur between wetlands and the health and well-being of people. As wetlands provide many valuable ecosystem services and are amongst the most degraded ecosystems globally, further degradation could greatly affect the wellbeing and health of people dependent on them. Healthy wetlands are generally associated with enhanced ecosystem services and improved outcomes for human health, and unhealthy wetlands with degraded ecosystem services and poor outcomes for human health. However, the relationships can also be paradoxical with some direct benefits for human health leading to the loss of other ecosystem services, in particular regulating and supporting services, and the enhancement of others, leading to poor outcomes for human health. This results in a health paradox whereby there is a loss regulating and supporting services from steps to enhance human health. A wetland paradox also occurs when there are poor outcomes for human health as a consequence of the maintenance or enhancement of ecosystem services.
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Document Type
Book Chapter
Location of the Work
Dordrecht, Netherlands
School
School of Natural Sciences
RAS ID
20455
Copyright
subscription content
Additional Information
Volume 4 of the Wetlands: Ecology, conservation and management series
Publisher
Springer
Comments
Finlayson, C.M., Horwitz, P., & Weinstein, P. (2015). Wetlands and human health. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
Available here.