ABSTRACT
The idea of applying an assessment of ecosystem health in environmental management emerged in the late 1980s. The parallel to the assessment of human health is very obvious. We go to our doctor for a diagnosis (What is wrong? What causes me to not feel completely healthy?) and hopefully initiate a treatment to bring us back to normal (=healthy conditions). Your doctor will apply several indicators/examinations (pulse, blood pressure, sugar in the blood and urine, etc.) before he comes up with a diagnosis and a proper treatment. The idea behind the assessment of ecosystem health is similar; see Figure 10.1. We observe that an ecosystem is not healthy and want a diagnosis: What is wrong? What has caused this unhealthy condition? And what can we do to bring the ecosystem back to normal? To answer these questions and also to follow the results of the “cure,” ecological indicators are frequently applied.
