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Poster De Conférence Année : 2016

Assessing ecological equivalence for wetland restoration by aggregating ecosystem services: consequences of the aggregation schemes

Résumé

Population growth and increasing food demand are causing urban and agricultural expansion. This poses serious challenges on habitat and ecosystem conservation. According to environmental policies worldwide, when ecosystem removal is unavoidable, the loss of ecosystem services can be offset by restoring the same ecosystem elsewhere. Restoration policies need to establish a “currency” for assessing the ecological equivalence between ecosystem loss and ecosystem to be restored. Here we consider currencies based on the aggregation of several services provided by the ecosystems. We focus on wetlands and on the Alberta Wetland policy. Wetlands are considered among the most ecosystems in the world and provide various benefits. The Alberta Wetland policy scores each wetland by aggregating scores related to three ecosystem services they provide: hydrological health, water purification, and ecological health. The aggregation schemes can be e.g., weighted average (with different sets of weights), minimum or maximum. Gi en that different wetlands provide ecosystem services in different proportion, the choice of the aggregation scheme may lead to unintended consequences on the removal and restoration priorities, leading to different outcomes of the restoration process at the landscape scale. We simulate wetland removal and restoration following the rules provided by the Alberta Wetland policy using different aggregation schemes. The study area is the Beaver Hills sub-watershed (Alberta, Canada), an area characterized by many wetlands and subject to the expansion of the city of Edmonton in the next decades. Scores of wetlands ecosystem services are calculated starting from GIS-derived indicators. Results show that the aggregation scheme should be chosen in light of the preferred ecosystem service to restore on the landscape. By playing with different weights, weighted average can be used to prioritize a certain ecosystem service accounting for tradeoffs and synergies. Minimum or maximum aggregation can lead to the restoration of mono-functional vs multi-functional wetlands.
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Dates et versions

hal-02739233 , version 1 (02-06-2020)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02739233 , version 1
  • PRODINRA : 428887

Citer

Francesco Accatino, Marian Weber, Irena F. Creed. Assessing ecological equivalence for wetland restoration by aggregating ecosystem services: consequences of the aggregation schemes. 5. International EcoSummit: Ecological Sustainability: Engineering Change, Aug 2016, Montpellier, France. 2016. ⟨hal-02739233⟩
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