The COVID-19 pandemic has stalled and rolled back progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ecosystem services (ESs), defined as the contributions of ecosystems to human well-being, underpin the achievement of SDGs. To promote SDG achievement in post-pandemic era, we teased out the links between ESs and SDGs while examining the impact of COVID-19. We found that ESs benefited all SDGs, yet man-made pressures led to degradation of ecosystems and their services. There is broad consensus that the virus lurks in degraded ecosystems and generates spillover due to human interference.
Water resources are an essential and determining factor for food production, ecosystem health, and socio-economic development. The socio–economic water cycling system is a complex adaptive system. Changes in the socio-economic system at the macro level, such as industrial transformation, technical progress, and water price reform, will have impacts on water resources utilization at the micro level.
