prioritizing wetland restoration: a review and application
TRANSCRIPT
Prioritizing Wetland Restoration: A
Review and Application to the
Mississippi Coastal Improvements
Program (MsCIP)
Todd BenDor Daniel Widis
Department of City and Regional Planning University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Michael Deegan Institute for Water Resources
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
[ACES 2012 Conference] Contact: [email protected]
Overview
MsCIP Program Overview
Wetland Restoration and Prioritization
GIS techniques and literature
MsCIP Spatial Decision Support System
(SDSS)
Improvements for restoration prioritization
protocols?
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
Hurricane Katrina and the Mississippi
Coastal Improvements Program (MsCIP)
Coastal ecosystems in Mississippi form vital fish and
wildlife habitats
Hurricane Katrina brought massive destruction to the
region
Destruction and damage of coastal habitats, wetlands,
barrier islands from wind and storm surge
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
MsCIP as a solution to past and
future damage
Post-Katrina plan to create “a coastal Mississippi that is more resilient and less susceptible to risk from hurricane and storm surge.”
What is resiliency?
“The capacity of a system to undergo disturbance and maintain its existing functions and controls and its capacity to adapt to future change.”
The plan “aims to identify solutions to the hurricane storm damage, saltwater intrusion, fish and wildlife, coastal zone erosion, and other related water resource problems of coastal Mississippi.”
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
Deviation from typical Corps planning
process
Planning process congressionally authorized and mandated
“Mandate to assess all aspects of storm related risk reduction measures including storm damage reduction, erosion reduction, ecosystem restoration, and saltwater intrusion in coastal Mississippi.”
Plan “will recommend cost-effective projects….and the report shall not perform an incremental benefit-cost analysis…and shall not make project recommendations based on maximizing net national economic development benefits
Comprehensive plan made up of “pragmatic ecosystem restoration features, programmatic storm damage reduction features, and number of large and small scale recommended plans…”
Watershed approach!
The Practice of Ecological Restoration
One definition: “Ecological restoration is the process of repairing damage caused by humans to the diversity and dynamics of indigenous ecosystems (Jackson, Lopoukhine, and Hillyard 1995).”
Various other definitions includes naturally occurring ecological dynamics that endanger humans
Poorly functioning ecosystem improved ecosystem
Final product focus is on ecosystem (can include recreational purposes)
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
2009 ACSP Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
Ecological Restoration Programs
Compensatory Mitigation (Clean Water Act Section
404 + state/local laws)
Large scale government efforts
MsCIP, Everglades
Local + state governments
NGO projects
E.g. TNC, local land conservancies/trusts
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
How do we select and prioritize
wetland restoration sites?
Site selection determines success
Landscape context and planned events are key to determining restoration success (NRC 2001; BenDor and Doyle 2010)
Local knowledge can falter over large spatial scales
Need to inform process with data infusion (‘watershed approach’)
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approaches
Site suitability analysis
Spatial decisions support system (SDSS)
Review of Location and Prioritization
Studies
Extended literature on the topic ranging from 1994-2010
Initial work has assessed 14 studies
Do others exist?
What variables are considered?
How are they considered?
How are different factors weighted?
Evaluation of
1. Restoration goals driving prioritization
2. Variables considered (44 found so far)
3. Weighting strategies
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
Wetland Prioritization Assessments: Study
Goals
Prioritization Study Locating
Wetlands Wildlife Habitat
Water Quality
Water Storage
Provide greatest ecosystem services
Wetland Restorability
Brown & Strayner, 1994 X X X X
Lin & Kleiss, 2007 X X X X
Russell, Hawkins, O'Neill, 1997 X X X
Van Lonkhuyzen, et al., 2004 X
Moreno-Mateos, et al., 2012 X X X
Kramer & Carpenedo, 2009 X X
Strager, et al., 2010 X
Kelly B. Williams, 2002 X
Berman, et al, 2002 X
Cedfeldt, et al., 2000 X X X X
RC Gatti & MS Richardson, 1999 X X
Palmeri & Trepel, 2002 X
White & Fennessy, 2005 X X
McCauley & Jenkins, 2005 X
Study Hydric Soils
Classified Wetland
Wetland Size
(Area)
Core Wildlife Habitat
Proximity to Restoration
Sites Interior Habitat
Part of Contiguous
Enhancement Corrects Habitat Fragmentation
Wetland Order
Hydrologic connectivity
Brown & Strayner, 1994 X X X X X X X X X X
Lin & Kleiss, 2007 X X X Russell, Hawkins, O'Neill, 1997
Van Lonkhuyzen, et al., 2004 X X X
Moreno-Mateos, et al., 2012 X X
Kramer & Carpenedo, 2009 X
Strager, et al., 2010 X X
Kelly B. Williams, 2002 X X
Berman, et al, 2002 X X
Cedfeldt, et al., 2000 X X X
RC Gatti & MS Richardson, 1999 X X
Palmeri & Trepel , 2002
White & Fennessy, 2005 X X
McCauley & Jenkins, 2005 X
Prioritization Assessments: Variables
Study Wetland
connectivity Soil
productivity Katrina Storm
damaged areas 100 year
floodplain
Soil Saturation/W
etness
Distance to seed source
Storm surge
capacity Depressions
Within Stream Buffer
Brown & Strayner, 1994 X X
Lin & Kleiss, 2007 X X X X X X X
Russell, Hawkins, O'Neill, 1997 X
Van Lonkhuyzen, et al., 2004 X X
Moreno-Mateos, et al., 2012
Kramer & Carpenedo, 2009 X
Strager, et al., 2010
Kelly B. Williams, 2002
Berman, et al, 2002 X
Cedfeldt, et al., 2000 X
RC Gatti & MS Richardson, 1999
Palmeri & Trepel, 2002
White & Fennessy, 2005 X
McCauley & Jenkins, 2005 X
Prioritization Assessments: Variables
Study Weighting If Yes, Rationale?
Brown & Strayner, 1994
Binary: converted wetlands (Hydric soil, soil productivity, land cover) OR NWI wetland; Remaining are even
Conversation with expert
Lin & Kleiss, 2007 Binary: Storm damaged areas OR 100 year floodplain OR non-natural land cover - No rationale provided; Remaining are even None provided
Russell, Hawkins, O'Neill, 1997 Even (none) Van Lonkhuyzen, et al., 2004 Variable - Professional Judgment
Professional Judgement
Moreno-Mateos, et al., 2012 Variable - Rationale Unclear None Provided Kramer & Carpenedo, 2009 Binary: Hydric Soil AND restorable land cover - literature review; rest even
Based on literature
Strager, et al., 2010 Even (None) Kelly B. Williams, 2002 Binary: Hydric soils - no rationale provided; rest even None provided
Berman, et al, 2002 Binary: Land-use; rest even Professional Judgement
Cedfeldt, et al., 2000 Even (None) RC Gatti & MS Richardson, 1999 Binary: Hydric soil OR classified wetland - based on literature; rest even
Based on literature
Palmeri & Trepel, 2002 Variable - Professional Judgement
Professional Judgement
White & Fennessy, 2005 Binary: hydric soil AND land use - no rational provided; rest pair-wise comparison None provided McCauley & Jenkins, 2005 Binary: hydric soil; rest even None provided
Weighting Strategies
Literature +
Professional
Judgment
Takeaways
Huge variety of different foci for finding and prioritizing wetland restoration sites using GIS
Different techniques for weighting – does not seem to be a standard set of best practices for weighting or validating
Interviews and analysis of the SDSS created for MsCIP suggest that the technique supported previous theories about best restoration sites
Local knowledge was key
Could this process be improved? How?
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])
Discussion Questions
Are there any additional literature(s) or studies that
you know of that can contribute to this study?
Are there any ways to quantitatively validate these
GIS restoration prioritization models?
Should there be any overriding logic in prioritizing
and weighting these models?
Thank you! Questions/Comments/SPAM?
Todd BenDor ([email protected])
2012 ACES Conference - Todd BenDor ([email protected])