Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

  Millennium Conference 2009 : Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought, and Environmental Justice

• November 9-12, 2009, in Athens, Georgia.

 Organisation

ESA Governing Board

 Presentation

• Ecosystem services are the benefits humans receive directly or indirectly from ecosystems. A major example of such a service is clean water for consumption, recreation, and industrial use. Periodic droughts, reducing the availability of these services, occur naturally in virtually all climatic zones. However the impacts of drought can be exacerbated or mitigated by varying public policy, infrastructure, and human behavior. These variations in turn cause differences in vulnerability to drought among regions and across communities of various racial, ethnic, and income composition, impacts commonly addressed under the term environmental justice.
• Ecology has the tools and methods needed to measure and predict the impacts of drought on ecosystem services related to water and in turn to help analyze the magnitude and social distribution of those impacts. Social science can provide us with the tools to understand how human institutions affect and respond to drought. Effective public decision making requires application of the knowledge generated by both disciplines.
• Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought, and Environmental Justice will bring together ecological and social scientists and students to explore the development of scientifically and socially sound solutions to water allocation in times of drought. The ultimate objective is to reduce conflicts among water users, enhance environmental justice, and more effectively manage public responses to water scarcity.

  Pour en savoir plus