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Integrating ecosystem services, health, and human well-being into decision-making
Citation:
Hoffman, J., K. Williams, J. Rhodus, AND S. Shattuck. Integrating ecosystem services, health, and human well-being into decision-making. SOPHIA-HIA Practitioner Workshop, St.Paul, MN, April 01 - 02, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
The impact of this research is to demonstrate how ecosystem services are valued by agencies, organizations, and individuals at the local, state, regional, and federal levels in program implementation, environmental restoration activities, disaster relief, community revitalization, lived experiences, and more. This talk will further demonstrate how health impact assessments (HIA) can be used to incorporate ecosystem services into community decision-making.
Description:
Ecosystem services are the biophysical attributes of the natural environment that humans value and that contribute to human well-being. Ecosystem services are valued by agencies, organizations, and individuals at the local, state, regional, and federal levels in program implementation, environmental restoration activities, disaster relief, community revitalization, lived experiences, and more. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 2018-2022 Strategic Plan articulates the need to evaluate the causal relationships between ecosystem goods and services and human health and to work with the Environmental Council of the States/Environmental Research Institute of the States (ECOS/ERIS) to determine the linkages of importance to the states. The overlap between ecosystem services and social determinants of health provides a unique opportunity for the systems-based approach of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to be used to work across sectors and science-policy divides to integrate ecosystem services and health into decision-making. Practical strategies, tools, and models for incorporating ecosystem services into community decision-making will be presented, along with case studies illustrating how HIA has been used to address ecosystem services and health. We will also share a translational science effort that is currently underway to mine HIAs conducted in the U.S. to better understand the ecosystem services-human health linkages that have been considered in decision-making and the strength of evidence that exists for those relationships.