Ecosystem Services in Floodplains

This volume is a collection of essays by European environmental scholars on the ecosystem services theme. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), carried out between 2001 and 2005 at the behest of the United Nations General Assembly, was designed to assess the consequences of the changes which have taken place in the environment on human wellbeing as well as to improve conservation and the sustainable use of ecosystems, by identifying the contributions these made to economic and social progress over the course of the centuries.

Scholars have been conducting research on the ecosystem services-human wellbeing interaction for some years now, but no long-term historical study of this topic – from the Middle Ages to the present day – has yet been attempted, and we believe this to be a fertile field of enquiry.

The essays in this volume attempt to identify the various direct or indirect drivers of change which have long influenced the human species-ecosystem interaction, opening us new avenues of research in the field of environmental history.

This volume, which includes contributions on the services offered by water ecosystems, intends to break down academic and disciplinary barriers as far as possible, and therefore relies on the co-operation of specialists from a wide range of sectors.