INTEGRATED MODELING FOR WATERSHED MANAGEMENT: MULTIPLE OBJECTIVES AND SPATIAL EFFECTS1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents an optimization framework for prioritizing sites for wetlands restoration on a watershed or landscape scale. The framework is designed for analyzing the potential environmental impacts of alternative management strategies while accounting for economic constraints, thereby aiding decision makers in explicitly considering multiple management objectives. The modeling strategy consists of two phases. First, relationships between the configuration of land use types in a watershed and valued ecosystem services are specified mathematically. Second, those functions are incorporated into a spatial optimization model that allows comparisons of the expected environmental impacts and economic costs of management strategies that change the configuration of land use in the watershed. By way of a stylized example, this paper develops the general structure of the framework, presents simulation results based on two production functions for ecosystem services, and discusses the potential utility of the methodology for watershed management.     

洞庭水患与生态环境保护

本文分析了洞庭湖流域生态环境破坏对洪涝造成的影响,指出流域生态环境受到破坏主要是人类违背自然规律、破坏森林植被、盲目围湖造田、生产及建设性破坏河道及湖滩所致。文章还就根治洞庭水患的关键性措施——搞好生态恢复,提出了几点意见。     

Modeling the Suitability of Potential Wetland Mitigation Sites with a Geographic Information System

Wetland mitigation is frequently required to compensate for unavoidable impacts to wetlands. Site conditions and landscape context are critical factors influencing the functions that created wetlands perform. We developed a spatial model and used a geographic information system (GIS) to identify suitable locations for wetland mitigation sites. The model used six variables to characterize site conditions: hydrology, soils, historic condition, vegetation cover, adjacent vegetation, and land use. For each variable, a set of suitability scores was developed that indicated the wetland establishment potential for different variable states. Composite suitability scores for individual points on the landscape were determined from the weighted geometric mean of suitability scores for each variable at each point. These composite scores were grouped into five classes and mapped as a wetland mitigation suitability surface with a GIS. Sites with high suitability scores were further evaluated using information on the feasibility of site modification and project cost. This modeling approach could be adapted by planners for use in identifying the suitability of locations as wetland mitigation sites at any site or region.     

Application of Decision Analysis to Forest Road Deactivation in Unstable Terrain

Resource managers require objective methodologies to optimize decisions related to forest road deactivation and other aspects of road management, especially in steep terrain, where road-related slope failures inflict extensive environmental damage. Decision analysis represents a systematic framework that clearly identifies real options and critical decision points. This framework links current decisions with expected future outcomes and provides advantages such as a common currency to systematically explore the liability consequences of limited budget expenditures to road deactivation and other road-related activities. Furthermore, the decision framework prevents the analysis from becoming hopelessly entangled by the vast number of possibilities generated by the alternative occurrences, magnitudes, and consequences of landslide/debris flow events and provides the information required for the first step of an adaptive management process. Here, a structured analysis of potential environmental risks for a road deactivation project in coastal British Columbia, Canada is presented. The application of decision analysis generates a ranking of the expected benefits of proposed deactivation activities on various road sections. The ranking distinguishes between road sections that offer high expected benefit from those that offer moderate to low expected benefit. Seventeen of 171, 100–m road segments accounted for 18% of the cumulative cost and 98% of the cumulative expected net benefits from road deactivation. Furthermore, the cost of deactivating a section of road is related to the expected benefit from such deactivation, thus providing the basis for more effective resource allocation and budgeting decisions.     

Prioritizing Wetland Restoration for Sediment Yield Reduction: A Conceptual Model

In a climate of limited resources, it is often necessary to prioritize restoration efforts geographically. The synoptic approach is an ecologically based tool for geographic prioritization of wetland protection and restoration efforts. The approach was specifically designed to incorporate best professional judgment in cases where information and resources are otherwise limited. Synoptic assessments calculate indices for functional criteria in subunits (watersheds, counties, etc.) of a region and then rank the subunits. Ranks can be visualized in region-scale maps which enable managers to identify areas where efforts optimize functional performance on a regional scale. In this paper, we develop a conceptual model for prioritizing watersheds whose wetlands can be restored to reduce total sediment yield at the watershed outlet. The conceptual model is designed to rank watersheds but not individual wetlands within a watershed. The synoptic approach is valid for applying the sediment yield reduction model because there is high demand for prioritizing disturbed wetlands for restoration, but there is limited, quantitative, accurate information available with which to make decisions. Furthermore, the cost of creating a comprehensive database is prohibitively high. Finally, because the model will be used for planning purposes, and, specifically, for prioritizing based on multiple decisions rather than optimizing a single decision, the consequence of prioritization errors is low. Model results cannot be treated as scientific findings. The conclusions of an assessment are based on judgement, but this judgement is guided by scientific principles and a general understanding of relevant ecological processes. The conceptual model was developed as the first step towards prioritizing of wetland restoration for sediment yield reduction in US EPA Region 4.     

Human impacts on the stream-groundwater exchange zone

Active exchanges of water and dissolved material between the stream and groundwater in many porous sand- and gravel-bed rivers create a dynamic ecotone called the hyporheic zone. Because it lies between two heavily exploited freshwater resources—rivers and groundwater—the hyporheic zone is vulnerable to impacts coming to it through both of these habitats. This review focuses on the direct and indirect effects of human activity on ecosystem functions of the hyporheic zone. River regulation, mining, agriculture, urban, and industrial activities all have the potential to impair interstitial bacterial and invertebrate biota and disrupt the hydrological connections between the hyporheic zone and stream, groundwater, riparian, and floodplain ecosystems. Until recently, our scientific ignorance of hyporheic processes has perhaps excused the inclusion of this ecotone in river management policy. However, this no longer is the case as we become increasingly aware of the central role that the hyporheic zone plays in the maintenance of water quality and as a habitat and refuge for fauna. To fully understand the impacts of human activity on the hyporheic zone, river managers need to work with scientists to conduct long-term studies over large stretches of river. River rehabilitation and protection strategies need to prevent the degradation of linkages between the hyporheic zone and surrounding habitats while ensuring that it remains isolated from toxicants. Strategies that prevent anthropogenic restriction of exchanges may include the periodic release of environmental flows to flush silt and reoxygenate sediments, maintenance of riparian buffers, effective land use practices, and suitable groundwater and surface water extraction policies.     

存在截渗墙情况下地下咸水恢复的优化方案

本文首先分析了咸水分布区的自然地理和水文地质条件，然后对研究区的水文地质条件进行了概化，建立了相应的地下水水量和水质的数值模型，最后通过地下水模拟软件Visual—MODFLOW3.1对存在截渗墙情况下的不同咸水恢复方案进行了数值分析。研究结果表明。单纯的抽水方案对于高浓度咸水的去除非常有效，但是低浓度咸水残留量较大；抽水——注水方案对高低浓度的去除效果都比较好；而抽水优化方案对高浓度和低浓度的咸水的去除更加经济、快速和彻底。     

恢复生态学研究的一些基本问题探讨

对恢复生态学的研究概况、基本概念、内涵与研究内容以及生态恢复的目标、原则、程序与技术进行了分析与探讨，指出恢复生态学应加强基础理论研究和应用技术研究。生态恢复与重建是指根据生态学原理，通过一定的生物、生态和工程技术，人为地切断生态系统退化的主导因子和过程，调整和优化系统内部及其与外界的物质、能量和信息的流动过程及其时空秩序，使生态系统的结构、功能和生态学潜力尽快成功地恢复到原有的乃至更高水平。     

丛枝菌根在矿区生态重建中的应用及其前景分析

目前国内外矿山复垦研究的新热点是应用现代微生物工艺技术加速新覆盖土的改性与熟化。在总结分析国内外微生物复垦技术研究现状的基础上,对丛枝菌根应用于矿区复垦的前景进行了展望。加快这项技术的应用研究,对拓宽我国科学复垦技术研究领域、提高土地复垦率具有重要意义。