Wetlands and Human Health

The book addresses the interactions between wetlands and human health and well-being. A key feature is the linking of ecology-health and the targeting of practitioners and researchers. The environmental health problems of the 21st Century cannot be addressed by the traditional tools of ecologists or epidemiologists working in their respective disciplinary silos; this is clear from the emergence and re-emergence of public health and human well-being problems such as cholera pandemics, mosquito borne disease, and episodic events and disasters (e.g. hurricanes). To tackle these problems requires genuine cross-disciplinary collaboration; a key finding of the recently concluded Millennium Ecosystem Assessment when looking at human well-being and ecosystem health. This book brings the disciplines of ecology and health sciences closer to such a synthesis for researchers, teachers and policy makers interested in or needing information to manage wetlands and human health and well-being issues.

Wetlands as settings for human health – the benefits and the paradox.- 2. Public health perspectives on water systems and ecology.- 3. Wetlands, well-being, food security and medicinal products.- Wetlands as sites of exposure to infectious diseases.- Wetlands as sites of exposure to pollution and toxicants.- Healthy wetlands, healthy people: mosquito borne disease.- Wetlands as livelihoods and contributions they make to health and well-being.- Wetlands and health: how do urban wetlands contribute to community well-being?.- Wetlands as places that help absorb the damage of natural disasters.- Interventions required to enhance human well-being by addressing the erosion of ecosystem services in wetlands.- Wetland wise use and human health – guidance for wetland.- A synthesis of the benefits and paradoxes of wetlands as settings for human health.