Environmental justice and ecosystem services: Access, equity and participation in the use and management of aquatic environments in the Helsinki region (ENJUSTESS)

The objective of ENJUSTESS is to explore the interconnections of environmental justice and ecosystem services with a novel focus on urban aquatic environments – or "blue infrastructure" – and cultural ecosystem services. ENJUSTESS focuses on non-extractive, cultural aquatic ecosystem services directly related to aquatic environments in the Helsinki region. Water bodies include the Baltic Sea (the Gulf of Finland), lakes, fluvial environments (esp. River Vantaa), small urban surface waters (e.g. streams and ponds) and wetlands (including protected areas). At the outset of the project, cultural ecosystem services of interest include recreation activities (e.g. swimming, recreational fishing, canoeing) as well as aesthetic and landscape amenities (e.g. relaxation, stress recovery) – but the uses and needs for aquatic environments are also addressed as an empirical problem in the research project.