scholarly journals People and water: Exploring the social-ecological condition of watersheds of the United States

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray W. Scown ◽  
Joseph E. Flotemersch ◽  
Trisha L. Spanbauer ◽  
Tarsha Eason ◽  
Ahjond Garmestani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social

A recent paradigm shift from purely biophysical towards social-ecological assessment of watersheds has been proposed to understand, monitor, and manipulate the myriad interactions between human well-being and the ecosystem services that watersheds provide. However, large-scale, quantitative studies in this endeavour remain limited. We utilised two newly developed ‘big-data’ sets—the Index of Watershed Integrity (IWI) and the Human Well-Being Index (HWBI)—to explore the social-ecological condition of watersheds throughout the conterminous U.S., and identified environmental and socio-economic influences on watershed integrity and human well-being. Mean county IWI was highly associated with ecoregion, industry-dependence, and state, in a spatially-explicit regression model (R2 = 0.77, P < 0.001), whereas HWBI was not (R2 = 0.31, P < 0.001). HWBI is likely influenced by factors not explored here, such as governance structure and formal and informal organisations and institutions. ‘Win-win’ situations in which both IWI and HWBI were above the 75th percentile were observed in much of Utah, Colorado, and New Hampshire, and lessons from governance that has resulted in desirable outcomes might be learnt from here. Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, along with large parts of the desert southwest, had intact watersheds but low HWBI, representing areas worthy of further investigation of how ecosystem services might be utilised to improve well-being. The Temperate Prairies and Central USA Plains had widespread areas of low IWI but high HWBI, likely a result of historic exploitation of watershed resources to improve well-being, particularly in farming-dependent counties. The lower Mississippi Valley had low IWI and HWBI, which is likely related to historical (temporal) and upstream (spatial) impacts on both watershed integrity and well-being. The results emphasise the importance of considering spatial and temporal trade-offs when utilising the ecosystem services provided by watersheds to improve human well-being.

scholarly journals Urban expansion in the Atlantic Forest: applying the Nature Futures Framework to develop a conceptual model and future scenarios

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (suppl 1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Cavalcanti Lembi ◽  
Cecilia Cronemberger ◽  
Caroline Picharillo ◽  
Sheina Koffler ◽  
Pedro H. Albuquerque Sena ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Atlantic Forest ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Impact

Abstract: The Atlantic Forest is an important hotspot of biodiversity and ecosystem services that contributes to the well-being of its 125 million human inhabitants, about three quarters of the Brazilian population. In the coming decades, forecasts show that urban areas in the Atlantic Forest will grow at the expense of natural ecosystems, leading to increasing pressure on biodiversity and ecosystem services. We used the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) for envisioning positive scenarios for cities in the Atlantic Forest. First, we developed a conceptual model based on the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) approach to describe consequences of urban growth for the three NFF perspectives: Nature for Society, Nature for Nature and Nature as Culture. Second, we proposed scenario storylines that encompass multiple social-ecological values of nature and could be used by policy makers to plan desirable futures for the Atlantic Forest. Then, we discussed the impact of distinct policies on these values, identifying the different ways in which the management of urban green and blue spaces, natural ecosystems, and urban densities can lead to different social-ecological outcomes. We further detail the complexity, trade-offs, and synergies regarding city development, nature conservation, and human well-being in this tropical hotspot. Applying NFF can contribute to the ongoing debate regarding urban sustainability, by providing an interdisciplinary and integrative approach that explicitly incorporates multiple values of nature and the visualization of positive futures.

Spatially integrated and socially segregated: The effects of mixed-income neighbourhoods on social well-being

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 1859-1874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amie Thurber ◽  
Claire Riehle Bohmann ◽  
Craig Anne Heflinger
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mixed Income

Mixed-income development is the latest in a long line of policy interventions to improve outcomes in distressed urban neighbourhoods, particularly as an alternative to large scale public housing projects. Such developments are inherently integrationist, and have profound effects on the social lives and well-being of residents. After situating mixed-income developments within current residential demographic trends with regard to race and income, this article provides a comprehensive review of the 22 empirical studies addressing social integration in mixed-income developments in the United States, focusing on understanding the effects of spatial integration on social well-being. We discuss policy and practice implications to optimise the social well-being of residents, as well as strategies to improve scholarship in these settings.

scholarly journals Ecosystem Services Becoming Political: How Ecological Processes Shape Local Resource-Management Networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Béla Kuslits ◽  
Ágnes Vári ◽  
Eszter Tanács ◽  
Réka Aszalós ◽  
Anghel Drasovean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

While a landscape usually provides a wide range of benefits, the ecological and spatial entanglement of the processes behind ecosystem services does not allow maximizing benefits from all services at the same time. Different stakeholders relying on different services might therefore prefer different policies and management for the wider area where they operate. Trade-offs, disagreements and mutual interests are rooted in ecological processes but are manifested in the social sphere. Social networks were shown to have a significant impact on the management of ecosystem services. In this paper we show that ecosystem services also influence the structure of management-networks and power-relations among stakeholders, thus ecological factors set the stage for (local-regional) political discourse. We used social network analysis (SNA) to show how ecological processes become agents of social-ecological systems (SES), this method is also useful for finding those players who can adopt a mediator role in the social sphere, having a special position in the web of competing interests. Our research shows how mutual influence between social and ecological elements shapes management strategies in five protected areas in Central and Eastern Europe. The most voluminous and profitable ecosystem services (primarily timber production in our cases) define which stakeholders are the most powerful in management networks—this eminent position allows these players to make decisions unilaterally. Other, smaller players tend to negotiate with a diverse set of counterparts with whom they share and co-manage often multiple services. Power relations that emerge as a consequence of production differences among ecosystem services often do not allow participatory management methods. These situations lead to over-utilization of natural resources with a narrow interpretation of sustainability which decreases resilience for the whole social-ecological system. Our results contribute to the theoretical understanding of political discourses in SES and showcase how SNA can be applied as a tool to facilitate participatory landscape-management. We show how ecological factors co-create the social sphere where decisions are made about sustainable land-use.

Psychosocial Consequences of Body Weight and Obesity

2018 ◽  
pp. 274-286
Author(s):  
Deborah Carr ◽  
Vera K. Tsenkova
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Integrative Health ◽  
Psychosocial Consequences ◽  
Adults And Children

The body weight of U.S. adults and children has risen markedly over the past three decades. The physical health consequences of obesity are widely documented, and emerging research from the Midlife in the United States study and other large-scale surveys reveals the harmful impact of obesity on adults’ psychosocial and interpersonal well-being. This chapter synthesizes recent research on the psychosocial implications of body weight, with attention to explanatory mechanisms and subgroup differences in these patterns. A brief statistical portrait of body weight is provided, documenting rates and correlates of obesity, with a focus on race, gender, and socioeconomic status disparities. The consequences of body weight for three main outcomes are described: institutional and everyday discrimination, interpersonal relationships, and psychological well-being. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the ways that recent integrative health research on the psychosocial consequences of overweight and obesity inform our understanding of population health.

scholarly journals Incorporating Ecosystem Services in the Assessment of Water Framework Directive Programmes of Measures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Souliotis ◽  
Nikolaos Voulvoulis
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Framework Directive ◽  
Water Status ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Ecological Objectives ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe EU Water Framework Directive requires the development of management responses aimed towards improving water quality as a result of improving ecosystem health (system state). Ecosystems have potential to supply a range of services that are of fundamental importance to human well-being, health, livelihoods and survival, and their capacity to supply these services depends on the ecosystem condition (its structure and processes). According to the WFD, Programmes of Measures should be developed to improve overall water status by reducing anthropogenic catchment pressures to levels compatible with the achievement of the ecological objectives of the directive, and when designed and implemented properly should improve the ecological condition of aquatic ecosystems that the delivery of ecosystem services depends on. Monitoring and evaluation of implemented measures are crucial for assessing their effectiveness and creating the agenda for consecutive planning cycles. Considering the challenges of achieving water status improvements, and the difficulties of communicating these to the wider public, we develop a framework for the evaluation of measures cost-effectiveness that considers ecosystem services as the benefits from the reduction of pressures on water bodies. We demonstrate its application through a case study and discuss its potential to facilitate the economic analysis required by the directive, and that most European water authorities had problems with. Findings demonstrate the potential of the methodology to effectively incorporate ecosystem services in the assessment of costs and benefits of proposed actions, as well as its potential to engage stakeholders.

Men Who Have Sex With Men and HIV Risk Behavior: Exploring the Influence of Masculinity Within the Social Ecological Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 511-533
Author(s):  
Kenneth C. Hergenrather ◽  
Diona Emmanuel ◽  
Robert J. Zeglin ◽  
David J. Ruda ◽  
Scott D. Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Risk Behavior ◽  
Hiv Risk ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Ecological Model ◽  
Hiv Risk Behavior ◽  
Bisexual Men ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sex With Men

In the United States, gay, bisexual men, and men who have sex with men (MSM) represent 86% of new HIV infections among males. Approximately 1 in 7 men with HIV are unaware of their HIV status (CDC, 2017, 2019a, 2020a). To explore influences on MSM HIV risk behavior, the authors performed a systematic review of quantitative studies conducted in the U.S. assessing what is purported as masculinity. From 30 identified studies, significant findings were framed within the Social Ecological Model (SEM) levels (e.g., Individual, Relationship, Community). SEM level themes were applied to create the Masculinity 10, a preliminary 10-item assessment to explore the influence of masculinity on MSM HIV risk behavior. To increase MSM engagement in HIV prevention and treatment, the influences of masculinity (e.g., attitude toward sexual minorities, appearance, emotion, temperament, substance use, sexual activity, social support, intimate relationships, health care) on HIV risk behavior should be further explored.

scholarly journals College Students’ Well-being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review of the Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Michaela Q. Iglesia ◽  
Ming-Tsan Lu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
College Students ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Socioeconomic Impacts ◽  
Health Lifestyle ◽  
Gender Minorities

Studies have shown increased levels of distress during the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, and college students are becoming more recognized as a vulnerable population. This narrative systematic review aims to synthesize the current understanding of mental health, lifestyle, and socioeconomic impacts that the pandemic had on college students in the United States. A search was conducted on PubMed, PsycInfo, and Web of Science. A total of 34 observational studies were included which examined aspects of college students’ health and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. A great deal of students was shown to experience a moderate level of stress and subsyndromal depression and anxiety in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several risk and protective factors have been characterized. Students experienced various academic, financial, and housing disruptions. Studies have highlighted the need for institutional support to reduce the adverse psychological impact of the pandemic. There is a need for further large-scale research to assess the scope of COVID-19-related biopsychosocial impact, especially in vulnerable populations such as racial/ethnic and sexual/gender minorities.

scholarly journals Higher education as a space for promoting the psychosocial well-being of refugee students

2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odette Jack ◽  
Elaine Chase ◽  
Ian Warwick
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Model ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Ecological Model ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Refugee Students ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Health Promoting University ◽  
Health And Well Being

Objective: This study aimed to investigate how well a single higher education institution (HEI) was perceived to be meeting the psychosocial support needs of refugee students and to identify possible ways in which the HEI might better promote refugee students’ psychosocial well-being. Design: Adopting an exploratory, focused case study design, the research employed a qualitative interpretive approach utilising three data collection methods: narrative inquiry, Photovoice and key informant interviews. The social ecological model and the health-promoting university approach guided the enquiry and analysis. Setting: A single HEI in London, UK. Results: Refugee student-participants reported stressful and traumatic experiences at different points in their migratory experience. Participants were motivated by being involved in education but identified barriers to seeking institutional support to improve their health and well-being. Student-participants and staff identified ways in which support for refugee student well-being could be improved. Conclusion: Refugee students were found to have specific health and well-being support needs which were not met due to a range of organisational constraints. The social ecological model and the health-promoting university offer frameworks for HEIs to respond better to the diverse health and well-being needs of students.

Social policy: models, directions, and features of the implementation

2020 ◽  
pp. 34-39
Author(s):  
Svetlana Nikolaevna Ispulova
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Economically Disadvantaged ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Models

The article is devoted to the main models and ways of forming social well-being as an indicator of the social state. The author draws attention to the ongoing measures of social support for economically disadvantaged citizens in Russia and the United States.

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