EnviroAtlas Eco-Health Relationship Browser
- The Eco-Health Relationship Browser illustrates scientific evidence for linkages between human health and ecosystem services.
- This interactive tool provides information about several of our nation's major ecosystems, the services they provide, and how those services, or their degradation and loss, may affect people.
- View the Browser demo video to get a brief introduction to the Browser's components and navigation.
Explore the services ecosystems provide and their impact on human health
- Scientific studies have documented many tangible and intangible services and health benefits that are provided by our surrounding ecosystems.
- Ecosystems such as wetlands and forests provide a wide variety of goods and services, many of which we use every day.
- Some of these services, such as air filtration, are not obvious and therefore it may be hard to understand the impact they have on our daily lives.
A broad selection of recent evidence
- Many of the cited studies do not prove cause-and-effect relationships, but highlight statistically significant, plausible associations in space and time.
- Inconclusive findings have been noted; such studies, as well as issues of causality, can be explored through the online bibliography.
- Summarized results from health studies reflect statistical controls for socioeconomic conditions.
- Documentation of the literature review and inclusion criteria for this tool appears in the International Journal of Public Health, July, 2013 (DOI 10.1007/s00038-013-0482-1).
- For more information, contact Laura Jackson at jackson.laura@epa.gov.