Investigation and visualization of the approaches mobilizing the concept of health of the environment

Abstract

Precise terminology is essential for every field for developing problem-solving strategies. It also helps to establish effective legislation and management frameworks. The field of environmental sciences is not an exception. A fast and accurate reaction to environmental issues can lead to fruitful results and prevent catastrophes. In order to improve performance, various approaches are created and thoroughly studied which appear to be more efficient when used for specific situations and aims. Therefore, it is important to have a good understanding of synonymously appearing approaches.

The thesis’s objective was to present and investigate the existing approaches addressing the concept of health of the environment. The study aims to achieve it via statistical analysis of scientific literature mentioning the terminology associated with the approaches.

Graphs on the historical development of terms were created to demonstrate the general trends occurring in the field and fluctuations in the popularity of each term. An analysis of the disciplines using the terms was performed to reveal possible similarities and overlaps in approaches known by different names. Finally, a keyword analysis was performed in VOSviewer aiming to demonstrate the environment’s role in the approaches.

The study confirmed an existing increase in the popularity of the terms preferred in the scientific literature. It also revealed great convergence between the approaches of ecological health and ecosystem health. The results also indicated that the majority of the approaches show more anthropocentric than biocentric qualities. The study partially achieved its objectives since for a proper study of some approaches available literature was insufficient.