**6. Conclusions**

**Figure 7.** Hypothesized conceptual model of wetlands and Dengue fever occurrence through wetland ecosystem

**Figure 6.** Proposed linkages between green spaces, the ecosystem services provided by green spaces and human health conditions (from [84]). EGS = Ecosystem goods and services, CVD = Cardiovascular disease, GI = Gastrointestinal, A = Intermediate steps linking green space and EGS, B = Evidence linking green space directly to human health outcomes.

services (adapted from [95]).

158 Ecosystem Services and Global Ecology

Many obstacles exist in developing useful and informative relationships between ecosystem services and community well-being including cultural differences in the perception of ecosystem services and well-being, lack of consistently available data to demonstrate a causal connection between services and well-being. This is often the case when combining natural sciences and social sciences data, approaches and interpretations. Even within these disciplines, the integration of data representing indicators to create indices or demonstrate connections is highly contentious. Some policy makers suggest that summary tools (e.g., models, indices, statistical assessments) lack meaningful interpretation and have little value in the real world [100, 101]. Others argue that the time is ripe for pushing these concepts into public policy – that the real world is a complex interaction of social, economic, and environmental activities where focus on single issues is insufficient to represent reality [102–104]. No matter who we are, or where we live, our well-being depends on the way ecosystems function. Defining, classifying and integrating ecosystem services into community decision making [105, 106] and, hence, community well-being is necessary for a holistic policy view that minimizes unintended consequences [66].

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The research described in this chapter provides a management roadmap for linking ecosystem services to human wellbeing, but significant work still needs to be accomplished. The complexity of the relationship between ecosystem services and community well-being signifies an urgent need to develop further the transdisciplinary science of ecosystem management bringing together ecologists, biologists, resource economists, social scientists, and holistic systems specialists. A primary goal of this transdisciplinary research is the development of a valuation system potentially based on well-being and well-being improvement through the provision of goods and service A focus on the underpinning processes is necessary to understand where there are trade-offs and synergies and how these outcomes change with environmental variation. All members of the transdisciplinary team described above need to build a stronger science for stocks and flows, link this work to natural capital studies and create a stronger socio-ecological science that reflects the fact that ecosystems are coupled human-environmental systems.
