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Human health and the health of the natural environment are inextricably linked. Activities such as urbanisation, pollution and intensive agriculture are putting increasing pressure on the planet’s ecosystems, impacting human health in complex ways. Solutions to these complex problems need to act at the intersection of the domains of human, animal, and ecosystem health, but often fail to do so. In this module students will explore how the fundamentals of ecosystems, biodiversity loss, climate change, global health, epidemiology, food systems, and public health policy might be applied to understand complex health challenges such as zoonotic disease transmission, antimicrobial resistance, ecosystem service disruption, air and water quality, food security and climate-related health risks and vulnerabilities to help address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.Ìý

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Module AimÌý

The aim of the module is to provide students with an in-depth, foundational understanding of the interactions between ecology, climate change and human health within a multidisciplinary framework.Ìý

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Learning ObjectivesÌý

At the end of the module students will be able to:

• Summarise the key concepts of One Health, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services and the links to human health and wellbeing across different disciplines.
• Explain both the advantages and disadvantages of natural capital and valuation, including where and why they are used.
• Identify connections between ecosystem and human health and how these might be influenced by land use and climate change
• Critically assess research at the interface of ecology, climate change and health and its application to complex global health issues in both an academic and policy context.
• Present science to different audiences

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In the first half of the module, students will cover key concepts in the interconnectivity between human, animal and ecosystem health across disciplines and then in the second half of the module, students will learn how these concepts might be applied to understand complex health challenges at local, national or global scales through a series of case studies.

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Topics will include: Ìý

• One Health and the interdependence of human and environmental health
• Ecosystem function and services
• Natural capital and valuing nature
• Impacts of anthropogenic pressures on biodiversity and ecosystem services
• Impacts of anthropogenic pressures on human health
• Local, national and global environmental and health policy contexts
• Case studies of complex health issues at the nexus of ecology, climate change and health: for example, zoonotic disease spill over, vector-borne disease spread, antimicrobial resistance, mental health impacts, air and water disruption, food insecurity and climate-related health risks and vulnerabilities

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