A conceptual model to assess stress‐associated health effects of multiple ecosystem services degraded by disaster events in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere

Abstract

Few conceptual frameworks attempt to connect disaster‐associated environmental injuries to impacts on ecosystem services (the benefits humans derive from nature) and thence to both psychological and physiological human health effects. To our knowledge, this study is one of the first, if not the first, to develop a detailed conceptual model of how degraded ecosystem services affect cumulative stress impacts on the health of individual humans and communities. Our comprehensive Disaster‐Pressure State‐Ecosystem Services‐Response‐Health model demonstrates that oil spills, hurricanes, and other disasters can change key ecosystem components resulting in reductions in individual and multiple ecosystem services that support people's livelihoods, health, and way of life. Further, the model elucidates how damage to ecosystem services produces acute, chronic, and cumulative stress in humans which increases risk of adverse psychological and physiological health outcomes. While developed and initially applied within the context of the Gulf of Mexico, it should work equally well in other geographies and for many disasters that cause impairment of ecosystem services. Use of this new tool will improve planning for responses to future disasters and help society more fully account for the costs and benefits of potential management responses. The model also can be used to help direct investments in improving response capabilities of the public health community, biomedical researchers, and environmental scientists. Finally, the model illustrates why the broad range of potential human health effects of disasters should receive equal attention to that accorded environmental damages in assessing restoration and recovery costs and time frames.

Persistent Risk‐Related Worry as a Function of Recalled Exposure to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Prior Trauma

“…Importantly, our findings demonstrate the value of considering economic and noneconomic losses, extending the application of frameworks such as the conservation-of-resources stress model (Hobfoll, 1989), which have typically been used to explain the correlation of resource loss (having to sell possessions) with anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Arata, Picou, Johnson, & McNally, 2000). The present work also helps to close knowledge gaps highlighted in other frameworks that provide taxonomies of processes, impacts, and vulnerabilities associated with human dimensions of oil spills (Chang et al, 2014;Sandifer et al, 2017;Webler & Lord, 2010). By documenting longer term impacts in a little-studied realm, we can provide additional information for scenarios and integrated models to support planning for pre-and postdisaster interventions to facilitate community resilience.…”

“…Rather, mental health symptoms relate to worries about health, household finances, community conflict, seafood safety, and perceived environmental risk. Several frameworks reflect these aspects of human dimensions of oil spill processes, impacts, and vulnerabilities (Chang, Stone, Demes, & Piscitelli, 2014;Cutter et al, 2008;Hobfoll, 1989;Hobfoll, Stevens, & Zalta, 2015;Sandifer et al, 2017;Webler & Lord, 2010).…”

Environmental health risk relationships, responsibility, and sources of information among Vietnamese Americans in coastal Mississippi

“…In addition to the cumulative impacts of disasters, the region faces environmental contamination and ecological degradation from industrial and agricultural operations and coastal development (Lichtveld, 2016;NASEM, 2018;NOAA, 2020). These acute and chronic shocks to social and ecological systems (NASEM, 2019) can bring about adverse psychosocial and physical health outcomes for residents, which are further exacerbated by historical stressors, such as health disparities and socioeconomic inequality (Abramson et al, 2015;Sandifer et al, 2017).…”

Framework for a Community Health Observing System for the Gulf of Mexico Region: Preparing for Future Disasters

“…Mental health impacts are a dominant effect of disasters (9), and disaster-related elevated stress may cause or exacerbate mental and physical disorders (10,11). Adverse physical health effects of disasters beyond immediate and near-term injuries are less well-studied than mental outcomes.…”