The complexity of environmental systems requires at the same time the application of an integrated set of assessment methods (among which Life Cycle Assessment, Risk Assessment, Ecological Footprint, Water Footprint, Material Flow Analysis, Ecological Network Analysis, Emergy Accounting) and effective management technologies, to prevent excess resource withdrawal as well as inadequate decision-making in economic and societal planning. Comprehensive databases and validated investigation methods are much-needed tools for appropriate understanding and managing environmental systems and species to ensure their survival and, at the same time, their safe interaction.

How humans interact with environmental systems generates many impacts at different time and space scales, characterized by different risks in scope and likelihood. Global warming and related climate change are only one, although very important, example of the consequences of human activity. Other emissions related to human activity (e.g., particulate matter release, microplastics, chemical releases to air, water, and soil) are likely to generate terrestrial, marine, and human toxicity, difficult to monitor and even more difficult to manage and decrease. Prevention and mitigation of such impacts require appropriate monitoring tools and deep changes in consumption and production patterns.

Loss of terrestrial and marine species due to pollution, climate change, and degraded habitats (soil, forests, coastal environments, among others) is growing very fast, with significant consequences on the global composition of local ecosystems. These consequences are sometimes difficult to foresee but very clear in other cases, such as the fast decrease in pollinator species. A detailed investigation and description of biodiversity losses in local marine and terrestrial habitats and potential solutions for their prevention, restoration, or decrease may lead to much-needed conservation policies.

Urban ecosystems show a very different structure and dynamics compared to natural ones. Buildings, roads, and sidewalks, made with concrete, glass, and asphalt, not only cover and waterproof large areas through which water is used to reach underground storages and runoff ways but also generate a temperature increase due to heat uptake by construction materials. CO₂, particulate matter and polluting chemicals released by urban traffic are not fully taken up due to the insufficient number of urban trees and green areas. Due to their small size, the latter can only partially host insects and other small animals (squirrels, birds, reptiles), which unavoidably translates into smaller biodiversity. Renewable energies, expanded green areas, and increased reuse and recycling of goods may prevent temperature and toxicity in urban environments, saving their characteristics as appropriate human and biodiversity habitats.

The increased world population, welfare, and technology generate increased resource use (mining, refining, industrial processing, transport, use, and landfilling) and impacts (greenhouse gases, toxicological releases, water, and materials depletion, land use), translating into less forests, less algae, less pollinators, less biodiversity. Who is responsible for these additional impacts, and how can they be monitored and decreased? Changed lifestyles, better technologies, material recycling, decreased trade worldwide, and nature restoration are only some of the possible options for us (as consumers, enterprises, and governments) to take on the responsibility of impacts and solutions.

Economy depends on the society with which it connects. And all of this depends—although sometimes it is not visible—on nature. Currently, global metabolic flow depends on the connections between resources and services, all of which occur under a scenario of global environmental change and climate change. To address these issues, a set of distinct perspectives are emerging from economics that address biophysical tensions and issues involved (Ecological Economics), the monetary valuation of exchanges and flows (Environmental Economics) and the opportunities that the socio-environmental system offers for recycling and decoupling certain major impacts (Circular Economy). By promoting “closing-the-loop” production patterns within economic systems, Circular Economy increases resource use efficiency and decreases rural, urban and industrial waste. Decoupling GDP from environmental impacts and natural resource demand under a preventive resource use design and reuse and recycle patterns aim to promote longer life of goods, decreased demand for non-renewable resources and energy, and decreased pollution and economic costs towards regenerative eco-industrial and societal development. Ecological Economics can provide insights into the hidden costs of economic systems, new ways of valuing environmental services, and a deeper understanding of the biophysical limits of the planetary system, as well as the relationships and conflicts surrounding the growing tensions between society and nature. Environmental Economics provides a monetarist view of nature that provides very useful measures and tools when the impacts produced are reversible and fully absorbed by the economic system in terms of externalities included.