Building Community Resilience through One Health Action
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Central
Wed., November 5, 2025
12-1p
Virtual Presentation Via Zoom
Register Here: https://tinyurl.com/mr2nehsm
Abstract:
Community resilience depends on the durability of natural systems to buffer and support human health. Environmental quality, wildlife health, and biodiversity are key determinants of human adaptability to climate-related stresses. Associated long-term physical and mental health impacts can be ameliorated by integrating ecological restoration in the built environment based on One Health principles.
We will discuss the basis of ecosystem restoration and management from a One Health perspective, where animal and wildlife well-being are integral to human physical and mental health. Ecosystems services and additive benefits of robust environmental quality are demonstrated through examples of landscape models adapted to flood, heat, and air quality resilience. Transformative layering of biodiversity richness within the built environment brings community health to the forefront and sustains it well beyond what traditional urban planning allows.
We will highlight Harris County’s One Health actions including the One Health in the Built Environment Toolkit; One Health Index; and One Health Action Hub, with specific examples of 1) connectivity along our region’s waterways; 2) connectivity along utility rights-of-way that support endemic prairie habitat; and 3) multi-objective infrastructure (detention basins, parks, campuses) where ecologies are co-located.
We will explore communications strategies that embed a One Health framework into infrastructure planning, resilience policy, and ecological restoration. Fostering resilience and embedding additive benefits of biodiversity into the urban framework creates accessibility to nature that is equitable and inclusive. By weaving ecosystem elements into the built environment, we are providing fair and just public health benefits and breaking down social determinants.
UNITED STATES
| 11/5/2025 |    |