Risks for human health from the loss of urban stream ecosystem services

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Freshwater ecosystems have the potential to provide services that benefit human society; however, their degradation in urban areas can lead to significant adverse effects on human health. We proposed and tested, with a case study (Coimbra/Portugal), an innovative approach to calculate those risks based on the loss of specific ecosystem services provided by urban streams that have a higher potential of influencing human health. At the city level, there were potential risks of health disorders due to poor air quality (55.5%), impairment of climate regulation services (32.8%), and degraded water quality (24.7%). Potential risks related to low educational and cognitive development (55.9%) and therapeutic services of the streams (34.4%) were predominantly associated with the reduction of the quality of riparian vegetation or stream artificialisation. We concluded that this could be a useful approach to assess the potential risks of freshwater degradation for human health and to guide cost-effective restoration measures of urban stream ecosystems and preventive measures for the health of cities’ human population. Although conceptually oversimplified, this model also points out information gaps and opens ways for further research focused on demonstrating the potential risks and the effects of the degradation of freshwater ecosystems on human health.