Ecohealth: Health, Well-Being and Watersheds

The document defines Ecohealth as the recognition that human well-being depends on healthy ecosystems, specifically emphasizing the role of watersheds. It argues that managing watersheds provides 'double dividends' by improving both social and environmental health determinants. The text highlights the cost-effectiveness of ecosystem restoration over engineered solutions and notes that climate change increases water-related risks in Canada. It calls for breaking down 'silos' between health and environmental practitioners and provides case studies from British Columbia and Manitoba to illustrate the benefits of integrated watershed stewardship.

• Ecohealth posits that human well-being is a direct result of healthy ecosystems, with watershed management serving as a tool to improve both social and environmental determinants of health.
• Investing in the restoration of ecosystem services can be significantly more cost-effective than building engineered infrastructure; for example, New York City spent US$1.5 billion on the Catskill Watershed to avoid a water filtration plant that would have cost between US$8 billion and US$10 billion.
• Climate change is identified as a primary driver of water-related risks in Canada, where rising temperatures and changes in precipitation intensity and frequency may lead to more water-borne disease outbreaks and water contamination.
• There is a documented disconnect between health and environmental practitioners, though a 2011 study indicated that Canadian watershed management organizations have a strong desire to increase their linkages with public health.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (n.d.). Ecohealth: Health, Well-Being and Watersheds. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/brochure_ecohealth.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Ecohealth: Health, Well-Being and Watersheds. n.d. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/brochure_ecohealth.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Ecohealth: Health, Well-Being and Watersheds |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/brochure_ecohealth.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopmentndecohealth, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Ecohealth: Health, Well-Being and Watersheds}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/brochure_ecohealth.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }