Building a macrosystems ecology framework to identify links between environmental and human health

The structure and functions of natural systems continue to be degraded by human activities such as land-use change. One potential consequence that has received relatively little attention is a corresponding decline in human health. Altered ecosystems can present a host of risks to human health. Yet the consequences of environmental degradation are rarely considered in national-scale research on human well-being. The guiding objective of this work is to compare stream health and socioeconomic metrics with spatially congruent human health metrics throughout the conterminous United States, then to identify potential links between environmental health, socioeconomic factors and human health. Environmental health metrics have been obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Stream-Catchment dataset. Human health metrics have been obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u27s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database. Socioeconomic data were downloaded from four sources and represent key behavioral, social and economic determinants of human health outcomes. In Chapter 1, random forest modeling was used to identify key predictors of human health, then to predict county-level mortality rate as a function of these covariates. In Chapter 2, path analysis models of human mortality were built to explore direct and indirect pathways between the environment, ecosystem health and human health to reveal potential cause-and-effect pathways at macrosystems scales. Finally, in Chapter 3, the random forest and path analysis modeling techniques used in Chapters 1 and 2 were repurposed to model racial and regional differences in the multi-step pathways that link environmental and socioeconomic factors to AAMR

Evaluating the Impact of Land Use Changes, Drivers of TMDL Development, and Green Infrastructure on Stream Impairments

Despite the water quality improvements and regulatory advancements over the last 50 years since the enactment of the Clean Water Act, water bodies within the United States are still impaired for a broad range of contaminants from non-point source pollution. Improving watershed management approaches to meet this challenge will require a greater understanding of (1) how changes within a watershed, such as changing land use, impact stream water quality, (2) what influence socioeconomic, spatial and political factors may have on the progress towards meeting water quality goals, such as those set within Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and (3) how specific best management practices can be designed to address water body impairments. First, land use within a watershed is known to have a direct impact on downstream water quality; however, temporal dynamics of these relationships are ill-defined. This is an important gap as management approaches are largely compartmentalized among land use types. Additionally, while management plans can span several decades, the impact of land use changes on water quality is often overlooked. Therefore, this dissertation evaluates land-use changes and their relationship to discharge and water quality trends at stream gages across the U.S. Second, the TMDL program is the primary regulatory lever in the U.S. for addressing non-point source pollution, but its implementation has been uneven across states. This could be due to the diverse socioeconomic, spatial, and political factors of each state. This dissertation therefore seeks to define the influence of these factors on indicators of TMDL progress. Finally, at the site level, management actions to meet regulatory permits include the use of green stormwater infrastructure to capture, treat, and infiltrate runoff at the source. One of the largest sources of impairments in the TMDL program is temperature; however, it is unclear the degree to which green stormwater infrastructure in series mitigates runoff temperatures during summer storms. To address this gap, this dissertation analyzes the temperature mitigation potential of interconnected green infrastructure practices through field observations. Altogether, the outcomes of this dissertation help to advance our understanding of how watershed planning, regulatory, and engineering actions affect downstream water quality

Urban Water Quality: Socio-Economic Distribution of Stream Degradation, and the Influence of Climate on BMP Performance

Urban water quality impairments have long burdened urban aquatic ecosystems in a phenomenon termed “urban stream syndrome”. The symptoms of this “syndrome” include physical changes in stream morphology and water level, biologically stressed environments, and perturbations in ecosystem processes. Despite years of research and costly investments in restoration and rehabilitation, urban waterways are still plagued by degradation. Improvement in urban water quality will require multi-faceted efforts, including progress on 2 key fronts 1) increased understanding of current impairments, and 2) increased knowledge about urban stormwater infrastructure like best management practices (BMPs). Towards both topics, engineers have quantified the influence of controls that can be manipulated in restoration and design to improve water quality, such as imperviousness, real time controls, and soil amendments in BMPs. However, urban waterways remain degraded, and there are still many unknowns regarding the distribution of stream quality impairments. Improvement of urban water quality requires better quantification of water quality distribution and quantification of factors that impact stormwater infrastructure performance. This dissertation provided a diagnosis of the extent of spatial variability in urban stream syndrome in an urban watershed in metropolitan Detroit, and informed stormwater infrastructure performance variabilities through the execution of three objectives. First, the distribution of stream quality variability across socio-economic groups was evaluated through a partnership with volunteer science. Second, nutrient management BMP variability was assessed on a regional climate scale, and variable performance between climates was quantified. Finally, the influence of storm characteristics on BMP nutrient management was assessed and performance under different types of storms was quantified. This research showed that high poverty areas are disproportionately burdened by poor stream water quality and identified phosphorus leaching vulnerability for BMPs in arid climates and during intense storm events

Integrating Knowledge for River Basin Management: Progress in Thailand

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Impacts and social implications of landuse-environment conflicts in a typical Mediterranean watershed

In coastal watersheds, services and landuse favour coastal tourism and urbanization, depriving rural upstream of infrastructure and attention. This unbalanced management leads to an intensification of socioeconomic changes that generate a structural heterogeneity of the landscape and a reduction in the livelihoods of the rural population. The incessant dissociation between the objectives of the stakeholders triggers landuse-environment-economy conflicts which threaten to mutate large-scale development programs. Here, we used multi-assessment techniques in a Mediterranean watershed from Morocco to evaluate the effects of landuse change on water, vegetation, and perception of the rural population towards environmental issues. We combined complementary vegetation indexes (NDVI and EVI) to study long-term landuse change and phenological statistical pixel-based trends. We assessed the exposure of rural households to the risk of groundwater pollution through a water analysis supplemented by the calculation of an Integrated Water Quality Index. Later, we contrasted the findings with the results of a social survey with a representative sample of 401 households from 7 villages. We found that rapid coastal linear urbanization has resulted in a 12-fold increase in construction over the past 35 years, to the detriment of natural spaces and the lack of equipment and means in rural areas upstream. We show that the worst water qualities are linked to the negative impact of anthropogenic activities on immediately accessible water points. We observe that rural households are aware of the existence and gravity of environmental issues but act confusedly because of their low education level which generates a weak capacity to understand cause and effect relationships. We anticipate the pressing need to improve the well-being and education of the population and synergistically correct management plans to target the watershed as a consolidated system. Broadly, stakeholders should restore lost territorial harmony and reallocate landuse according to a sustainable environment-socioeconomic vision

Developing an Odonate-Based Index for Monitoring Freshwater Ecosystems in Rwanda: Towards Linking Policy to Practice through Integrated and Adaptive Management

Worldwide, the decline of biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems is occurring at an alarming rate, due to anthropogenic threats, which directly impact humans in a variety of ways. Freshwater ecosystems occupy an integral part of political, socio-economic and ecological spheres. Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) and Adaptive Management (AM) conceptual frameworks provide an underpinning holistic platform from which to evaluate the performance of policies and actions on the ground in relation to freshwater ecosystem management. I investigate the extent to which environmental policies and practices embrace IWM and AM frameworks in Rwanda. Furthermore, this dissertation develops an odonate-based ecological monitoring tool, referred to as Dragonfly Biotic Index (DBI). The development of this tool involved surveying adult odonates, water physical-chemical variables, habitat characteristics and weather conditions across the six ecological zones of Rwanda. An average of 16 sites per each ecological zone were surveyed in a short rainy season and revisited in a short dry season. This countrywide survey added 25 new odonate species to the national check list, which increased it to 114 species. The abundance of odonates was significantly different between ecological zones and between seasons. The DBI developed here consists of three sub-indices: distribution-based score, sensitivity-based score and threat-based score as per IUCN Red List categories. To validate DBI, I examined its effectiveness in reflecting habitat integrity. This included using DBI to assess the relationship of land uses (agriculture and mining) and environmental, and physical- chemical variables of freshwater ecosystems. DBI values were significantly lower in agricultural and mining sites than their control sites. Also, significant changes in some environmental variables were associated with the two land uses. These included the degradation of riparian vegetation as associated with both agriculture and mining. While agriculture was significantly associated with higher conductivity, mining exhibited a significant relationship with higher water turbidity and higher sandy substrates than their control sites. In conclusion, not only will DBI enable deeper investigation of the extent to which land uses affect freshwater ecosystems, but also will be instrumental in prioritization for habitats that need crucial conservation. Additionally, this monitoring tool is meant to make data on ecosystem status readily available to facilitate analysis of ecological responses to socio-economic, political and pragmatic interventions. Thus, these data can be used to inform all spheres involved: ecological, political and socio-economic. The use of odonates, which are charismatic insects, will potentially engage and promote citizen-based monitoring. This will ultimately instill pro-environmental attitudes within local communities and set the stage for collaboration between stakeholders

FORECASTING CLIMATE AND LAND USE CHANGE IMPACTS ON ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN HAWAIʻI THROUGH INTEGRATION OF HYDROLOGICAL AND PARTICIPATORY MODELS

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Integrated Water Resources Research

Anthropogenic and natural disturbances to freshwater quantity and quality are a greater issue for society than ever before. To successfully restore water resources requires understanding the interactions between hydrology, climate, land use, water quality, ecology, and social and economic pressures. This Special Issue of Water includes cutting edge research broadly addressing investigative areas related to experimental study designs and modeling, freshwater pollutants of concern, and human dimensions of water use and management. Results demonstrate the immense, globally transferable value of the experimental watershed approach, the relevance and critical importance of current integrated studies of pollutants of concern, and the imperative to include human sociological and economic processes in water resources investigations. In spite of the latest progress, as demonstrated in this Special Issue, managers remain insufficiently informed to make the best water resource decisions amidst combined influences of land use change, rapid ongoing human population growth, and changing environmental conditions. There is, thus, a persistent need for further advancements in integrated and interdisciplinary research to improve the scientific understanding, management, and future sustainability of water resources