The Swiss NEHAP: why it ended

While European countries tend to increase the importance given to their national environmental health action plan (NEHAP), Switzerland stopped implementing its NEHAP in 2007. This study investigates the reasons for this surprising decision. The results provide an explanation of a relatively unique case and should inform any person interested in understanding common obstacles in the making and implementation of coordinated environmental health policies and programs. Data used in this study have been obtained from interviews conducted among experts of the Swiss environmental health policies and from survey results provided by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Findings show that financial constraints were only partly responsible for the abandonment of the NEHAP and that many of the shortcomings observed arose from the creation and the functioning of the Environmental and Health Section at the Federal Office of Public Health, which was devoted to the NEHAP. Lack of scientific knowledge and capacity to build intersectoral collaboration, compounded by a limited conception of environmental health, resulted in a lack of political awareness of environmental health issues. In consequence, the study highlights the necessity of a true interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach for environmental health policies. Policy makers should also be concerned with the creation of relevant systems of indicators, since they appear to be fundamental to the success of environmental health policie

Opportunities and Challenges to Increase Inter- and Transdisciplinarity: A Qualitative Study of the FloodRISE Project

Background: The FloodRISE project, which started in 2013 in Southern California, aimed at better understanding how to promote resilience to coastal flooding. It was based on a cross-disciplinary approach, involving several research teams and local communities. Purpose: We conducted a qualitative study of the first phase of the project (2013-2015) in order to analyze its inter- and transdisciplinary aspects. Setting: We conducted this evaluation as a visiting postdoctoral researcher at UCI, not participating in the FloodRISE project. Intervention: Not applicable. Research design: We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with members of the three project teams - modeling, social ecology and integration & impact - at UCI in 2015. Data were analyzed and interpreted to identify key aspects of the collaboration within and between project teams, as well as their relationship to local stakeholders. Findings: The analysis showed that an intensive dialogue-based method of interaction and the presence of boundary researchers played a fundamental role in bridging the conceptual and methodological gaps between social and engineering sciences. These results thus exemplify several possibilities for developing more efficient interactions between researchers in a cross-disciplinary project. However, any cross-disciplinary project should: carefully evaluate potential for participants to become boundary researchers, since participants with multiple disciplinary expertise may be underemployed; improve researchers’ level of readiness, in order to facilitate further interaction and increase time efficiency; and clearly address remoteness issues to avoid lower collaboration between central and peripheral locations. Keywords: interdisciplinarity; transdisciplinarity; qualitative study; project evaluation; flood ris

Opportunities and Challenges to Increase Inter- and Transdisciplinarity: A Qualitative Study of the FloodRISE Project

Background: The FloodRISE project, which started in 2013 in Southern California, aimed at better understanding how to promote resilience to coastal flooding. It was based on a cross-disciplinary approach, involving several research teams and local communities. Purpose: We conducted a qualitative study of the first phase of the project (2013-2015) in order to analyze its inter- and transdisciplinary aspects. Setting: We conducted this evaluation as a visiting postdoctoral researcher at UCI, not participating in the FloodRISE project. Intervention: Not applicable. Research design: We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with members of the three project teams - modeling, social ecology and integration & impact - at UCI in 2015. Data were analyzed and interpreted to identify key aspects of the collaboration within and between project teams, as well as their relationship to local stakeholders. Findings: The analysis showed that an intensive dialogue-based method of interaction and the presence of boundary researchers played a fundamental role in bridging the conceptual and methodological gaps between social and engineering sciences. These results thus exemplify several possibilities for developing more efficient interactions between researchers in a cross-disciplinary project. However, any cross-disciplinary project should: carefully evaluate potential for participants to become boundary researchers, since participants with multiple disciplinary expertise may be underemployed; improve researchers’ level of readiness, in order to facilitate further interaction and increase time efficiency; and clearly address remoteness issues to avoid lower collaboration between central and peripheral locations. Keywords: interdisciplinarity; transdisciplinarity; qualitative study; project evaluation; flood ris

Les politiques publiques de santé environnementale en Europe: un parent pauvre du développement durable?

Cette thèse étudie les politiques publiques de santé environnementale mises en œuvre en Europe – plus spécifiquement en Suisse, en Allemagne et en Belgique – et se concentre sur les plans d'action environnement santé (NEHAP pour National Environmental Health Action Plan) et sur les stratégies nationales de développement de durable (SNDD) adoptés par ces pays. L'analyse, notamment basée sur un grand nombre d'entretiens menés auprès d'experts en santé environnementale, nous conduit à défendre l'idée selon laquelle les politiques publiques de santé environnementale représentent avant tout un exercice fictif, donc particulièrement limité dans ses effets, pour les Etats européens. En effet, le décalage existant entre un processus initié au niveau (régional) européen, affirmant l'importance des enjeux de santé environnementale, et des processus nationaux au sein desquels la santé environnementale conserve un statut marginal, tend à circonscrire les mesures adoptées à des programmes de recherche scientifique et de sensibilisation des populations

The Swiss NEHAP: why it ended

While European countries tend to increase the importance given to their national environmental health action plan (NEHAP), Switzerland stopped implementing its NEHAP in 2007. This study investigates the reasons for this surprising decision. The results provide an explanation of a relatively unique case and should inform any person interested in understanding common obstacles in the making and implementation of coordinated environmental health policies and programs. Data used in this study have been obtained from interviews conducted among experts of the Swiss environmental health policies and from survey results provided by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Findings show that financial constraints were only partly responsible for the abandonment of the NEHAP and that many of the shortcomings observed arose from the creation and the functioning of the Environmental and Health Section at the Federal Office of Public Health, which was devoted to the NEHAP. Lack of scientific knowledge and capacity to build intersectoral collaboration, compounded by a limited conception of environmental health, resulted in a lack of political awareness of environmental health issues. In consequence, the study highlights the necessity of a true interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach for environmental health policies. Policy makers should also be concerned with the creation of relevant systems of indicators, since they appear to be fundamental to the success of environmental health policies

De la spécificité du concept de santé environnementale vis-à-vis du développement durable

This article proposes a study of the concept of environmental health and of its links with sustainable development. Whereas both concepts have had distinct historical courses, since the end of the 1980’s we are witnessing a strong connection resulting mainly in the attempt to integrate the concept of environmental health and that of sustainable development. However, these two concepts, even though they share some common characteristics, still remain basically different. Consequently, this article aims at reformulating the concept of environmental health and its relationship to sustainable development, in order to give it more autonomy

Questionnaire destiné aux membres de la CODHA. Rapport d'analyse des résultats

La CODHA étant en forte croissance, tant en termes de membres que de projets en cours de développement, il lui est apparu nécessaire de mieux cerner les motivations et les objectifs de ses coopérateurs, notamment selon différents degrés d'engagement (membres de soutien, membres en liste d'attentes, membres engagés dans la planification d'un projet, membres logés par la CODHA),afin de déterminer les profils des membres et leurs positionnements en matière de valeurs et leurs attentes de développement. La CODHA a décidé en avril 2017 de mandater l'Institut des Sciences de l'Environnement de l'Université de Genève pour réaliser une enquête par questionnaire auprès de ses membres. Deux chercheurs du pôle en Gouvernance de l'Environnement et Développement Territorial ont été chargés de l'étude : Cédric Lambert et Julien Forbat. Au sein de la CODHA, le suivi du projet a été assuré par Mauro Bellucci, membre du Comité et de l'Équipe de Direction

La santé environnementale en Europe : un exercice fictif de politique publique ?

Alors que les États européens insistent, principalement au sein des institutions internationales telles que le Bureau régional de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé pour l’Europe (OMS-Europe), sur la nécessité de développer des politiques publiques de santé environnementale, une analyse minutieuse des processus nationaux de politique publique, focalisée sur les plans d’action environnement et santé (PAES), tend à montrer que les résultats obtenus sont particulièrement limités. Cet article étudie les raisons de ce surprenant « paradoxe de la santé environnementale ». Les données utilisées pour cette recherche proviennent d’interviews menées en Suisse, en Allemagne et en Belgique auprès d’experts des politiques publiques de santé environnementale, ainsi que d’une enquête réalisée par le Centre environnement et santé de l’OMS-Europe à Bonn auprès des États membres de la région. Les résultats de notre étude montrent que les principaux obstacles auxquels les politiques publiques de santé environnementale font face dans ces trois États proviennent de leur manque de reconnaissance politique au niveau national, notamment vis-à-vis du concept de développement durable, de leur confinement à des mesures d’encouragement de la recherche scientifique, limitant leur capacité à atteindre des acteurs situés en dehors de « communautés épistémiques » spécifiques, et de l’absence de systèmes d’indicateurs en mesure d’évaluer de façon satisfaisante les enjeux de santé environnementale et les résultats des politiques mises en œuvre. Ces résultats, confrontés aussi aux expériences autrichienne et française en la matière, fournissent une explication des difficultés rencontrées par un champ de politique publique relativement nouveau et mettent en exergue des limites auxquelles font couramment face des politiques publiques complexes et intersectorielles

Rethinking conceptual frameworks and models of health and natural environments

This article considers conceptual frameworks and models applied in research about the multiple relations between human contact with natural environments (specifically green public spaces), diverse kinds of human activities and uses of those spaces, and effects on physical and mental health. Conceptual frameworks are tools for thinking about such complex subjects. Conceptual models represent the multiple relations between key factors and variables. These models can be used to represent the mutual interactions between the core components of environmental conditions of specific green public spaces, the main kinds of human activities in those settings, and various impacts on health. A literature search showed that the authors of various conceptual models used a metaphor of pathways to represent relations between explanatory variables by linear cause–effect relations. Mutual interaction between key variables and feedback loops between different components of the model are rarely included. Hence, it is argued that these models do not represent the complexity of real world situations. The authors propose a systemic conceptual framework founded on core principles of human ecology. The proposed conceptual framework and model have been formulated during and after an EU 7th Framework project about the ‘‘Positive Health Effects of the Natural Outdoor Environment in Typical Populations in Different Regions of Europe.