ecological systems maintaining and enhancing natural features and minimizing adverse impacts of...
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Ecological SystemsMaintaining and Enhancing Natural Features and Minimizing Adverse Impacts of Infrastructure Projects
Course Review
Emily Mitchell Ayers, Ph.D.The Low Impact Development Center, Inc.
• Human activities often have adverse environmental impacts
• Learning to design infrastructure systems that successfully integrate with the environment requires an understanding of ecology and a knowledgebase of sustainable design techniques
Key Message
7-3
• To become familiar with the basic principles of ecology
• To learn to anticipate the ecological impacts of infrastructure projects over their entire life cycles from planning to decommissioning
• To learn techniques to prevent, minimize, and mitigate these impacts
• To learn how to design infrastructure systems that contribute to productive, environmentally restorative and socially desirable uses of land and protection of native flora and fauna
Course Objectives
7-4
1. Course Overview: Ecosystem services and the importance of ecologically-sensitive design
2. Introduction to Ecology: Ecological theory
3. Impacts of Infrastructure: What are the major ecological impacts caused by infrastructure, and how do infrastructure projects cause these impacts?
Modules of the Course
7-5
4. Protecting Habitat: Assessing habitat, prioritizing and creating conservation areas
5. Integrating Infrastructure: How to design infrastructure projects that work in harmony with their surroundings
6. Restoring Ecological Function: An overview of the general theory of ecosystem restoration, with examples of restoration in specific contexts
Modules of the Course
7-6
• Ecosystems provide essential services on which humans depend
• Provisioning services
• Regulating services
• Supporting services
• Cultural services
• Disturbance of ecosystems can lead to loss or degradation of ecosystem services
Ecosystem Services
7-7
• What are ecosystems?
• What principles govern ecosystem behavior?
• How do ecosystems respond to change?
Introduction to Ecology
7-8
• Ecosystem: a unit that consists of living and non-living components interacting to form a system
• Ecosystems are made up of populations of species organized into communities interacting with their physical environment
• Ecosystems are almost always open systems with inputs and outputs
What is an Ecosystem?
7-9
• Ecosystems develop complex feedback mechanisms to conserve materials and energy.
• Organisms self-organize into food webs and nutrient cycling pathways.
• Each species inhabits a unique ecological niche, and plays a role in maintaining the system.
• Keystone species play essential roles. Loss can disrupt ecological function.
What Principles Govern Ecosystem Behavior?
7-10
• Ecosystems are always changing, either due to pulsing predator/prey relationships, disturbance, or gradual succession from pioneer to climax systems
• Ecosystem stability is described in terms of resistance to change and resilience
• Stability depends on biodiversity, size, location, and connectivity
How Do Ecosystems Respond to Change?
7-11
• What ecological impacts are associated with infrastructure?
• How do ecosystems become degraded?
• What are the local, national, and global implications?
Impacts of Infrastructure
7-12
• Habitat loss
• Habitat fragmentation
• Pollution
• Altered river and estuary hydrology
• Climate change
• Road kills
What Ecological Impacts Are Associated With Infrastructure?
7-13
• Direct habitat loss
• Habitat fragmentation
• Damage to physical environment
• Chemical toxicity
• Hunting and harvesting
• Introduction of exotic species
How Do Ecosystems Become Degraded?
7-14
• Habitat loss and fragmentation
• Depletion of fresh water resources
• Eutrophication
• Hydromodification
• Air pollution
Impacts in the United States
7-15
• Depletion of fresh water resources
• Climate change
• Excessive nutrient loading
• Loss of biodiversity
• Habitat loss
Global Impacts
7-16
1. Know where you are
2. Avoid sensitive areas
3. Minimize infrastructure impacts
4. Mitigate unavoidable losses
5. Improve ecological function where possible
Ecologically-Sensitive Design Process
7-17
• Site assessment
• Identifying critical resources
• Conservation design techniques
Protecting Habitat
7-18
• Ecologically-sensitive design begins with a thorough site assessment
• Identify important habitat areas
• Understand how site fits into larger regional landscape
Site Assessment
7-19
• Conserve the most important habitat areas
• Viable, intact communities
• Vulnerable, rare, or sensitive communities
• Endemic communities (locally unique)
• Maintain and improve connectivity to promote wildlife movement
Identifying Critical Resources
7-20
• Focus development in areas that are:• Previously disturbed• Fragmented• At the edges rather than the center of intact
communities
• Maintain and improve connectivity to promote wildlife movement
Conservation Design
7-21
Integrating Infrastructure
• The energy signature
• Anticipating infrastructure impacts
• Minimizing infrastructure impacts
7-22
The Energy Signature
• Infrastructure projects interact with the ecosystems in which they are situated
• Minimizing infrastructure impacts requires understanding and protecting the energy signature of the ecosystem
• Energy signature: the set of forcing functions affecting an ecosystem
7-23
Forcing Functions
• Sunlight level
• Temperature
• Precipitation
• Hydrologic regime
• Fire regime
• Inputs• Organic matter• Nitrogen• Phosphorus
7-24
• Maintain pre-development hydrology
• Maintain pre-development nutrient inputs
• Minimize pollution
• Maintain pre-development plant cover
• Avoid introduction of exotic invasive species
Key Considerations for Infrastructure
7-25
• Basic principles of ecological restoration• Focus on function, not appearance
• Rely on self-organization as much as possible
• Examples of restoration techniques• Streams
• Wetlands
• Lakes and Ponds
• Upland ecosystems
Restoring Ecological Function
7-26
• Consult with experts
• Remove barriers to ecological function
• Establish key species to jump-start self-organization
• Provide connectivity to existing habitat
• Be patient!
Basic Principles of Ecological Restoration
7-27
• Multiple choice
• Covers material from each module
• Tests understanding of key concepts
• Application of principles
Examination
7-28