Adaptive management on the central Platte River--science, engineering, and decision analysis to assist in the recovery of four species

Active adaptive management is the centerpiece of a major species recovery program now underway on the central Platte River in Nebraska. The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program initiated on January 1, 2007 and is a joint effort between the states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska; the U.S. Department of the Interior; waters users; and conservation groups. This program is intended to address issues related to endangered species and loss of habitat along the Platte River in central Nebraska by managing land and water resources and using adaptive management as its science framework. The adaptive management plan provides a systematic process to test hypotheses and apply the information learned to improve management on the ground, and is centered on conceptual models and priority hypotheses that reflect different interpretations of how river processes work and the best approach to meeting key objectives. This framework reveals a shared attempt to use the best available science to implement experiments, learn, and revise management actions accordingly on the Platte River. This paper focuses on the status of adaptive management implementation on the Platte, experimental and habitat design issues, and the use of decision analysis tools to help set objectives and guide decisions.     

Urban channel adjustments in a management context: an Australian example

The impact of urbanization on stream channels has been investigated in a range of areas; the degree and extent of the channel adjustments have been demonstrated; and for a few areas these characteristics have recently been placed into a spatial context. A method of rapid field survey for depicting the channel network of urban areas in terms of near natural, adjusted, and channelized systems is illustrated for the urban area of Armidale NSW, for which Armidale Dumaresq Council had prepared a stormwater management plan. Such a survey could enable channel characteristics and adjustments, as well as water quantity and quality, to be included in the management plan. Possible options for management to address are suggested for each of the channel categories. A channel classification system of the kind suggested can provide a basic complement for the further development of the stormwater management plan, can afford a basis for specifying management alternatives, and can be helpful in demonstrating the options offered for community consultation.     

Environmental whole farm management plans: their character, diversity, and use as agri-environmental indicators in New Zealand

This paper reports on a nationwide survey of environmental farm plan programmes and plan characteristics, towards determining New Zealand's (NZ's) capability and eligibility for reporting on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) environmental whole farm management plan agri-environmental indicator. Considerations regarding the validity of the indicator are discussed. Environmental farm planning in NZ is widespread, fragmented, and diverse. Nine of NZ's 16 regional authorities have environmental farm plan programmes involving 20 different types of environmental farm plans. Potentially half of NZ's total area of farmland is included, but this is reduced by limited and selective use of environmental farm plans as policy instruments. Three authorities are capable of readily reporting the number and coverage of their environmental farm plans; six would need to manually compile the information. Compliance monitoring is mostly informal, but necessary for checking the implementation of plan works and actions. Eligibility of NZ environmental farm plans cannot be determined until the OECD define acceptance standards. A contemporary definition of environmental farm plans is proposed, along with additional criteria necessary to ensure such plans are credible indicators of issue ownership, adoption of best management practice, and landscape changes intended to improve environmental quality.     

Efficient management of marine resources in conflict: An empirical study of marine sand mining, Korea

This article develops a dynamic model of efficient use of exhaustible marine sand resources in the context of marine mining externalities. The classical Hotelling extraction model is applied to sand mining in Ongjin, Korea and extended to include the estimated marginal external costs that mining imposes on marine fisheries. The socially efficient sand extraction plan is compared with the extraction paths suggested by scientific research. If marginal environmental costs are correctly estimated, the developed efficient extraction plan considering the resource rent may increase the social welfare and reduce the conflicts among the marine sand resource users. The empirical results are interpreted with an emphasis on guidelines for coastal resource management policy.     

Multiple attribute evaluation of landscape management

Economic approaches to the valuation of ecological services have several limitations. Some of these limitations can be overcome using the multiple attribute decision-making model developed in this paper. The model postulates that a private or public decision-maker selects a site/landscape management plan based on the biophysical and economic attributes of alternative management plans, the decision-maker’s preferences for attributes, and constraints on the selection of a management plan.Two cases are examined. Case A is a watershed consisting of publicly owned land that is managed at the site, management unit and landscape scales. Management is based on the philosophy of ecosystem management. Case B is a watershed composed of several privately owned units that are managed at the site scale by decision-makers whose primary motivation is economic profit. The preferred management plan in both cases is determined using a two-stage procedure. The first stage uses a stochastic programming model to identify the most efficient management plans for a site/landscape. The second stage determines which efficient management plan for a site/landscape is preferred by maximizing an expected utility function that is additive in the attributes and assumes that the decision-maker is risk neutral.Whether a land-management plan results in strongly or weakly sustainable resource conditions is evaluated. Strong sustainability requires the probability of exceeding the minimum acceptable value of an attribute to be greater than or equal to a pre-determined reliability level for each attribute. Weak sustainability requires the same condition except that it applies to a composite index of the attributes rather than each attribute. Bayes theorem is used to evaluate uncertainty about whether the state of a landscape is sustainable.     

The practice of participatory research and gender analysis in natural resource management

Stakeholder participation is expected to improve the efficiency, equity, and sustainability of natural resource management research and development (R&D) projects by ensuring that research reflects users’ priorities, needs, capabilities, and constraints. Use of participatory methods and tools is growing rapidly; however, there is little systematic evidence about what participation actually means in practice, or about what difference it makes. Based on an inventory of 59 self‐described participatory R&D projects in the area of natural resource management, this article characterizes the typical project and analyzes how stakeholders are selected, how they participate in the research process, and what their involvement means for project costs and impacts. The results suggest that, while projects are generating a range of direct and indirect benefits for participants, more careful attention needs to be paid to achieving equitable impacts. Current practices may lag behind best practices in key areas, such as power sharing and participant selection, and may therefore be missing important contributions from women and other marginalized groups.     

Evaluating Management of Protected Areas: Integrating Planning and Evaluation

/ An approach to evaluating the effectiveness of management of protected areas is proposed. This approach has been used in developing an evaluation strategy for the Fraser Island World Heritage Area in Australia. The main component of the strategy is built upon the desired outcomes specified in the management plan for the area and thus provides a basis for assessing the extent to which the plan's objectives are being achieved. A series of monitoring programs have been proposed to enable this assessment. Examples of monitoring programs developed as part of the evaluation strategy are presented. A second component of the strategy monitors the implementation of the management plan. A management information system has been developed to record and report on the extent to which the specific actions specified in the management plan have been implemented. The strategy is discussed in relation to seven objectives set for the evaluation program in its design phase.KEY WORDS: Planning; Evaluation; Monitoring; Management; Protected areas     

Visions and strategies for growth management: Teller County/Woodland Park example

This article is the third in a series prepared to explain the Teller County growth management planning process. Once it was determined by local decision-makers that Teller County, Colorado, would pursue a policy of directed growth, concepts based on this policy were developed. These concepts presented visions and options for the future. Landscape plans then were developed for Teller County and the City of Woodland Park planning area so that these options could be visualized by local leaders and the public. The landscape plans were used as part of the ongoing citizen involvement process to inform the public about the options for growth management. To provide even more information, detailed designs were developed for specific areas in the county. From the landscape plan, public involvement effort, and detailed designs, specific implementation measures were identified, discussed, and adopted. These measures included guidelines for administration, so that county and city goals could be linked to the actual day-to-day management of development proposals. Paper 3 in a series of 3.     

Effectiveness of participatory planning for community management of fisheries in Bangladesh

This study provides statistical evidence that support for community-based management of resources was more effective when initiated through a process known as participatory action plan development (PAPD). Thirty-six sites were studied where community management of fisheries was facilitated by NGOs. All involved community participation and establishing local fisheries management institutions. However, communities were able to take up more conservation-related interventions and faced fewer conflicts in the 18 sites where a PAPD was the basis for collective action and institution development. This indicates the value and effectiveness of adopting good practice in participatory planning, such as PAPD, which helps diverse stakeholders find common problems and solutions for natural resource management.     

Landscape planning: A method applied to a growth management example

This article is the first in a series of three. These articles were prepared to document the growth management process undertaken in Teller County, Colorado, USA. In this article, an 11-step method for landscape planning is proposed. In step 1, an issue, or set of related issues, is identified as posing a problem and/or opportunity to people and/or the environment. In step 2, a goal, or several goals, is established to address the problem or opportunity. In steps 3 and 4, inventories and analyses of biophysical and sociocultural processes are conducted, first at the regional level and then at the local level. Step 5 involves detailed studies (such as suitability analyses) that link the inventory and analysis information to the problems or opportunities and goals. Detailed studies link regional and local information to specific sites. Thus, this method involves a regional-local-specific site hierarchy. In step 6, concepts are developed that lead to a landscape plan in step 7. During step 8, the plan is explained through a systematic educational and citizen involvement effort to the affected public. In step 9, detailed designs are developed that again are explained to the specific individuals who will be impacted by the designs. It is in step 10 when the plan and designs are implemented. Step 11 involves the administration of the plan. The method is illustrated through an example of growth management planning for Teller County and the city of Woodland Park, Colorado. Paper 1 in a series of 3.     

Watershed management and the Web

Watershed analysis and watershed management are developing as tools of integrated ecological and economic study. They also assist decision-making at the regional scale. The new technology and thinking offered by the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web is highly complementary to some of the goals of watershed analysis. Services delivered by the Web are open, interactive, fast, spatially distributed, hierarchical and flexible. The Web offers the ability to display information creatively, to interact with that information and to change and modify it remotely. In this way the Internet provides a much-needed opportunity to deliver scientific findings and information to stakeholders and to link stakeholders together providing for collective decision-making. The benefits fall into two major categories: methodological and educational. Methodologically the approach furthers the watershed management concept, offering an avenue for practical implementation of watershed management principles. For educational purposes the Web is a source of data and insight serving a variety of needs at all levels. We use the Patuxent River case study to illustrate the web-based approach to watershed management. A watershed scale simulation model is built for the Patuxent area and it serves as a core for watershed management design based on web applications. It integrates the knowledge available for the Patuxent area in a comprehensive and systematic format, and provides a conceptual basis for understanding the performance of the watershed as a system. Moreover, the extensive data collection and conceptualisation required within the framework of the modeling effort stimulates close contact with the environmental management community. This is further enhanced by offering access to the modeling results and the data sets over the Web. Additional web applications and links are provided to increase awareness and involvement of stakeholders in the watershed management process. We argue that it is not the amount and quality of information that is crucial for the success of watershed management, but how well the information is disseminated, shared and used by the stakeholders. In this respect the Web offers a wealth of opportunities for the decision-making process, but still to be answered are the questions at what scale and how widely will the Web be accepted as a management tool, and how can watershed management benefit from web applications.     

Ecosystem management: A comparison of greater yellowstone and georges bank

Ecosystem management links human activities with the functioning of natural environments over large spatial and temporal scales. Our examination of Greater Yellowstone and Georges Bank shows similarities exist between human uses, administrative characteristics, and some biophysical features. Each region faces growing pressures to replace traditional extractive uses with more sustainable extractive or noncommodity uses coupled with concern about endangered species. Ecosystem management as a set of practical guidelines for making decisions under evolving expectations is far from complete, and it embodies new demands on individuals and institutions. In each system these challenges are considered relative to: the public's symbolic understanding of the management challenge, ecosystem management ambiguities, information availability, information use, administrative setting, and learning capabilities of governance organizations Progress in making ecosystem management operational may occur as refinements in content and approach make it an increasingly attractive option for resource users, the public, and government officials.     

Implementing the European flood risk management plan

In response to the extreme flood events of recent decades, the European Union has released the Floods Directive (2007/60/EC), which requires the creation of flood risk management plans. These plans do not yet exist in practice, as water management agencies have until 2015 to put them into action. This contribution will discuss two questions regarding the European flood risk management plan: First, how is the new instrument integrated into the various member states, particularly with respect to the scenario approach? Second, how prepared are the institutions for the collaborative planning paradigm of the flood risk management plan, particularly with respect to the river basin districts approach? Citing examples from France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, this paper offers both a pessimistic and an optimistic perspective on the implementation of the new flood risk management instrument.     

A GIS-based protocol for the collection and use of local knowledge in fisheries management planning

Despite a heavy reliance on scientific knowledge as the primary source of information in resource management, many resources are in decline, particularly in fisheries. To try and combat this trend, researchers have drawn upon the knowledge of local resource users as an important supplement to scientific knowledge in designing and implementing management strategies. The integration of local knowledge with scientific knowledge for marine species management, however, is problematic stemming primarily from conflicting data types. This paper considers the use of spatial information technology as a medium to integrate and visualise spatial distributions of both quantitative scientific data and qualitative local knowledge for the purposes of producing valid and locally relevant fisheries management plans. In this context, the paper presents a detailed protocol for the collection and subsequent use of local knowledge in fisheries management planning using geographic information systems (GIS). Particular attention is paid to the use of local knowledge in resource management, accuracy issues associated with the incorporation of qualitative data into a quantitative environment, base map selection and construction, and map bias or errors associated with the accuracy of recording harvest locations on paper map sheets, given the complications of map scale.     

A Framework for Designing Ecological Monitoring Programs for Protected Areas: A Case Study of the Galachos del Ebro Nature Reserve (Spain)

The assessment of management effectiveness in protected areas, i.e., the evaluation of whether management strategies are actually helping to achieve stated goals, is becoming a priority. In any such evaluation, accurate information concerning the dynamics of the managed system is required—information that is gathered through monitoring. Few protected areas, however, have well-developed monitoring plans, and reserve managers are faced with a shortage of protocols for their design. This paper proposes a methodology, applicable to a wide range of situations, for designing such plans. The process begins with the precise definition of the aims of the monitoring plan, followed by the identification of key ecological processes and management objectives for the area, and finally the selection of a reduced set of indicators. These indicators are represented at three levels of growing complexity, allowing the plan to be followed in a modular fashion and in agreement with available resources.     

Geographic information systems: a tool for strategic ground water quality management

Geographically‐related information is needed for several elements of an integrated ground water quality management programme, including ground water monitoring planning, prioritization of pollution sources, usage of permits and inspections for source control, and planning and completion of remedial actions. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) can be used to support these elements along with delineating wellhead protection areas (WHPAs), prioritizing existing contaminant sources and evaluating proposed changes in land usage in such areas. Eight case studies of the use of GISs in wellhead protection programmes are summarized, including examples from Rhode Island, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Massachusetts and Texas. Six additional examples are mentioned relative to the use of GISs for evaluating ground water pollution potential, facilitating data analysis for environmental restoration of a large area with numerous waste sites, evaluating trends in ground water nitrate contamination, establishing a national database for ground water vulnerability to agricultural chemicals, simulating water table altitudes from stream and drainage basin locations, and selecting radioactive waste dump sites. The applicability of GISs and their associated advantages in wellhead protection and other ground water management studies are demonstrated via the case studies. The GIS technology provides a unique opportunity for analysing and visualizing spatial data. Contaminant and source prioritization within WHPAs is needed for both extant conditions and in the evaluation of proposed land use changes. The coupling of a GIS with contaminant/source prioritization would provide a strategic tool which could be used to plan targeted ground water monitoring programmes, to identify appropriate management or mitigation measures, minimize introduction of contaminants from existing sources into the subsurface environment, and to evaluate the potential of proposed land use activities for causing ground water contamination. GISs can be useful in providing current information for policy makers, planners and managers engaged in ground water quality decision making.     

A COST‐BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF WATER QUALITY PROTECTION IN THE CATAWBA BASIN1

ABSTRACT: The primary objective of this study was to perform a cost‐benefit analysis of maintaining the current level of water quality in the Catawba River basin. Economic benefits were estimated using a stated preference survey method designed to value respondents' willingness to pay for a management plan to protect water quality in the Catawba basin over time. From the surveys conducted with 1,085 area residents, we calculated an annual mean willingness to pay of $139 for the management plan, or more than $75.4 million for all taxpayers in the area. Over the five‐year time horizon in which respondents were asked to pay for the management plan, this resulted in a total economic benefit of $340.1 million. The Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework model was used to estimate the amount of management activities needed to protect the current level of water quality in the basin over time. Based on the model results, the total cost of the management plan was calculated to be $244.8 million over a ten‐year period. The resulting cost‐benefit analysis indicated that the potential benefits of this management plan would outweigh the costs by more than $95 million.     

Bringing diverse knowledge sources together--a meta-model for supporting integrated catchment management

Integrated catchment management (ICM), as promoted by recent legislation such as the European Water Framework Directive, presents difficult challenges to planners and decision-makers. To support decision-making in the face of high complexity and uncertainty, tools are required that can integrate the evidence base required to evaluate alternative management scenarios and promote communication and social learning. In this paper we present a pragmatic approach for developing an integrated decision-support tool, where the available sources of information are very diverse and a tight model coupling is not possible. In the first instance, a loosely coupled model is developed which includes numerical sub-models and knowledge-based sub-models. However, such a model is not easy for decision-makers and stakeholders to operate without modelling skills. Therefore, we derive from it a meta-model based on a Bayesian Network approach which is a decision-support tool tailored to the needs of the decision-makers and is fast and easy to operate. The meta-model can be derived at different levels of detail and complexity according to the requirements of the decision-makers. In our case, the meta-model was designed for high-level decision-makers to explore conflicts and synergies between management actions at the catchment scale. As prediction uncertainties are propagated and explicitly represented in the model outcomes, important knowledge gaps can be identified and an evidence base for robust decision-making is provided. The framework seeks to promote the development of modelling tools that can support ICM both by providing an integrated scientific evidence base and by facilitating communication and learning processes.     

Linking linear programming and spatial simulation models to predict landscape effects of forest management alternatives

Forest management planners require analytical tools to assess the effects of alternative strategies on the sometimes disparate benefits from forests such as timber production and wildlife habitat. We assessed the spatial patterns of alternative management strategies by linking two models that were developed for different purposes. We used a linear programming model (Spectrum) to optimize timber harvest schedules, then a simulation model (HARVEST) to project those schedules in a spatially explicit way and produce maps from which the spatial pattern of habitat could be calculated. We demonstrated the power of this approach by evaluating alternative plans developed for a national forest plan revision in Wisconsin, USA. The amount of forest interior habitat was inversely related to the amount of timber cut, and increased under the alternatives compared to the current plan. The amount of edge habitat was positively related to the amount of timber cut, and increased under all alternatives. The amount of mature northern hardwood interior and edge habitat increased for all alternatives, but mature pine habitat area varied. Mature age classes of all forest types increased, and young classes decreased under all alternatives. The average size of patches (defined by age class) generally decreased. These results are consistent with the design goals of each of the alternatives, but reveal that the spatial differences among the alternatives are modest. These complementary models are valuable for quantifying and comparing the spatial effects of alternative management strategies.