Promoting ecosystem and human health in urban areas using green infrastructure: A literature review

Europe is a highly urbanised continent. The consequent loss and degradation of urban and peri-urban green space could adversely affect ecosystems as well as human health and well-being. The aim of this paper is to formulate a conceptual framework of associations between urban green space and ecosystem and human health. Through an interdisciplinary literature review the concepts of Green Infrastructure, ecosystem health, and human health and well-being are discussed. The possible contributions of urban and peri-urban green space systems, or Green Infrastructure, on both ecosystem and human health are critically reviewed. Finally, based on a synthesis of the literature a conceptual framework is presented. The proposed conceptual framework highlights many dynamic factors, and their complex interactions, affecting ecosystem health and human health in urban areas. This framework forms the context into which extant and new research can be placed. In this way it forms the basis for a new interdisciplinary research agenda

Air pollution trends in the EMEP region between 1990 and 2012

The present report synthesises the main features of the evolution over the 1990-2012 time period of the concentration and deposition of air pollutants relevant in the context of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution: (i) ozone, (ii) sulfur and nitrogen compounds and particulate matter, (iii) heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants. It is based on observations gathered in State Parties to the Convention within the EMEP monitoring network of regional background stations, as well as relevant modelling initiatives. Joint Report of: EMEP Task Force on Measurements and Modelling (TFMM), Chemical Co-ordinating Centre (CCC), Meteorological Synthesizing Centre-East (MSC-E), Meteorological Synthesizing Centre-West (MSC-W)

Ecological Principles and Guidelines for Managing the Use of Land

The many ways that people have used and managed land throughout history has emerged as a primary cause of land-cover change around the world. Thus, land use and land management increasingly represent a fundamental source of change in the global environment. Despite their global importance, however, many decisions about the management and use of land are made with scant attention to ecological impacts. Thus, ecologists' knowledge of the functioning of Earth's ecosystems is needed to broaden the scientific basis of decisions on land use and management. In response to this need, the Ecological Society of America established a committee to examine the ways that land-use decisions are made and the ways that ecologists could help inform those decisions. This paper reports the scientific findings of that committee. Five principles of ecological science have particular implications for land use and can assure that fundamental processes of Earth's ecosystems are sustained. These ecological principles deal with time, species, place, disturbance, and the landscape. The recognition that ecological processes occur within a temporal setting and change over time is fundamental to analyzing the effects of land use. In addition, individual species and networks of interacting species have strong and far-reaching effects on ecological processes. Furthermore, each site or region has a unique set of organisms and abiotic conditions influencing and constraining ecological processes, Disturbances are important and ubiquitous ecological events whose effects may strongly influence population, community, and ecosystem dynamics. Finally, the size, shape, and spatial relationships of habitat patches on the landscape affect the structure and function of ecosystems. The responses of the land to changes in use and management by people depend on expressions of these fundamental principles in nature. These principles dictate several guidelines for land use. The guidelines give practical rules of thumb for incorporating ecological principles into land-use decision making. These guidelines suggest that land managers should: (1) examine impacts of local decisions in a regional context, (2) plan for long-term change and unexpected events, (3) preserve rare landscape elements and associated species, (4) avoid land uses that deplete natural resources, (5) retain large contiguous or connected areas that contain critical habitats, (6) minimize the introduction and spread of nonnative species, (7) avoid or compensate for the effects of development on ecological processes, and (8) implement land-use and management practices that are compatible with the natural potential of the area. Decision makers and citizens are encouraged to consider these guidelines and to include ecological perspectives in choices on how land is used and managed. The guidelines suggest actions required to develop the science needed by land managers.Ecological Applications 10(3), 639-670. (2000)1051-076

Ecosystem management and environmental policy in the United States: Open window or closed door?

Metadata only recordEcosystem management is a recent policy alternative proposed to address a new generation of environmental issues. At least 18 federal agencies are currently exploring the concept of ecosystem management and its implications for their activities. Each of the major regulatory, land and natural resource management agencies has drafted policy guidance regarding ecosystem management. And federal sector efforts are just one layer of a wider nationwide phenomenon: similar activities are occurring at state and local government levels, as well as within the nongovernmental sector. This paper addresses two questions: What is ecosystem management? Will ecosystem management endure as a land and resource management policy