Public Health and Human Ecology


Book Description

This book provides descriptions of public health problems, including historical background and ecological perspectives.




Health Ecology


Book Description

This ground-breaking study offers new challenges to those teaching, studying or developing strategies and policies in health and the environment.Bringing together a variety of approaches from different perspectives and different locations, the contributors examine the various dimensions of health ecology in a human ecology framework, examining how local, regional and global factors impinge upon the health and environment of individuals, communities and the globe.




Human Ecology


Book Description

Humans have always been influenced by natural landscapes, and always will be—even as we create ever-larger cities and our developments fundamentally change the nature of the earth around us. In Human Ecology, noted city planner and landscape architect Frederick Steiner encourages us to consider how human cultures have been shaped by natural forces, and how we might use this understanding to contribute to a future where both nature and people thrive. Human ecology is the study of the interrelationships between humans and their environment, drawing on diverse fields from biology and geography to sociology, engineering, and architecture. Steiner admirably synthesizes these perspectives through the lens of landscape architecture, a discipline that requires its practitioners to consciously connect humans and their environments. After laying out eight principles for understanding human ecology, the book’s chapters build from the smallest scale of connection—our homes—and expand to community scales, regions, nations, and, ultimately, examine global relationships between people and nature. In this age of climate change, a new approach to planning and design is required to envision a livable future. Human Ecology provides architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and planners—and students in those fields— with timeless principles for new, creative thinking about how their work can shape a vibrant, resilient future for ourselves and our planet.




States of Disease


Book Description

"Human health is shaped by the interactions between social and ecological systems. States of Disease advances a social ecology of health framework to demonstrate how historical spatial formations contribute to contemporary vulnerabilities to disease and the possibilities for health justice. The book examines how managed HIV in South Africa is being transformed with expanded access to antiretroviral therapy, and how environmental health in northern Botswana is shifting due to global climate change and flooding variability. These cases demonstrate how the political environmental context shapes the ways in which health is embodied, experienced, and managed"--Provided by publisher.




Human Ecology


Book Description

'The scope and clarity of this book make it accessible and informative to a wide readership. Its messages should be an essential component of the education for all students from secondary school to university... [It] provides a clear and comprehensible account of concepts that can be applied in our individual and collective lives to pursue the promising and secure future to which we all aspire' From the Foreword by Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council and former Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) The most important questions of the future will turn on the relationship between human societies and the natural ecosystems on which we all, in the end, depend. The interactions and interdependencies of the social and natural worlds are the focus of growing attention from a wide range of environmental, social and life sciences. Understanding them is critical to achieving the balance involved in sustainable development. Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development presents an extremely clear and accessible account of this complex range of issues and of the concepts and tools required to understand and tackle them. Extensively supported by graphics and detailed examples, this book makes an excellent introduction for students at all levels, and for general readers wanting to know why and how to respond to the dilemmas we face.




Ecosystems and Human Health


Book Description

Ecosystems and Human Health introduces Ecohealth as an emerging field of study, traces its evolution, and explains its applications in cross-disciplinary and holistic programs. Its integrative approach not only focuses on managing the environment to improve health, but also analyzes underlying social and economic determinants of health to develop innovative, people-centered interventions.




Natural Environments and Human Health


Book Description

The role natural environments play in human health and wellbeing is attracting increasing attention. There is growing medical evidence that access to the natural environment can prevent disease, aid recovery, tackle obesity and improve mental health. This book examines the history of natural environments being used for stress-reduction, enjoyment, aesthetics and catharsis, and traces the development of the connection between humans and the environment, and how they impact our personal and collective health.




Ecological Public Health


Book Description

Ecological Public Health demonstrates that although public health medicine is useful and honourable, a radical rethink is required and is, indeed, starting to emerge. It aims to revitalize thinking about public health in terms of ecology, and calls for a concerted combined effort from existing disciplines to bring about reform.




Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula


Book Description

This book adopts a human ecology approach to present an overview of the biological responses to social, political, economic, cultural and environmental changes that affected human populations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, since the Classic Maya Period. Human bodies express social relations, and we can read these relations by analyzing biological tissues or systems, and by measuring certain phenotypical traits at the population level. Departing from this theoretical premise, the contributors to this volume analyze the interactions between ecosystems, sociocultural systems and human biology in a specific geographic region to show how changes in sociocultural and natural environment affect the health of a population over time. This edited volume brings together contributions from a range of different scientific disciplines – such as biological anthropology, bioarchaeology, human biology, nutrition, epidemiology, ecotoxicology, political economy, sociology and ecology – that analyze the interactions between culture, environment and health in different domains of human life, such as: The political ecology of food, nutrition and health Impacts of social and economic changes in children’s diet and women’s fertility Biological consequences of social vulnerability in urban areas Impacts of toxic contamination of natural resources on human health Ecological and sociocultural determinants of infectious diseases Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula – A Human Ecology Perspective will be of interest to researchers from the social, health and life sciences dedicated to the study of the interactions between natural environments, human biology, health and social issues, especially in fields such as biological and sociocultural anthropology, health promotion and environmental health. It will also be a useful tool to health professionals and public agents responsible for designing and applying public health policies in contexts of social vulnerability.




Health and the Environment in the Southeastern United States


Book Description

The purpose of this regional workshop in the Southeast was to broaden the environmental health perspective from its typical focus on environmental toxicology to a view that included the impact of the natural, built, and social environments on human health. Early in the planning, Roundtable members realized that the process of engaging speakers and developing an agenda for the workshop would be nearly as instructive as the workshop itself. In their efforts to encourage a wide scope of participation, Roundtable members sought input from individuals from a broad range of diverse fields-urban planners, transportation engineers, landscape architects, developers, clergy, local elected officials, heads of industry, and others. This workshop summary captures the discussions that occurred during the two-day meeting. During this workshop, four main themes were explored: (1) environmental and individual health are intrinsically intertwined; (2) traditional methods of ensuring environmental health protection, such as regulations, should be balanced by more cooperative approaches to problem solving; (3) environmental health efforts should be holistic and interdisciplinary; and (4) technological advances, along with coordinated action across educational, business, social, and political spheres, offer great hope for protecting environmental health. This workshop report is an informational document that provides a summary of the regional meeting.