Development of an integrated approach to ecosystem management: A framework for indicator selection
- Environment Canada, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada). National Hydrology Research Inst.
The ``ecosystem approach`` to environmental management is viewed as being fundamental to the development of appropriate management strategies. While this approach represents a major advance in the way researchers view environmental assessment, it does not provide practical information as to what questions to ask or what tools to use in managing ecosystems. The authors suggest the next stage in environmental assessment will be the development of specific frameworks designed to assess individual ecosystems. Of primary importance is the need to consider basic ecosystem structure and function and to identify stakeholder concerns. These considerations together with explicit identification of anthropogenic stresses particular to the system serve to identify components most at risk and those issues most deserving of attention. Research must explore critical linkages between environmental stressors and their observable, measurable and predictable effects on ecological parameters and use this understanding to develop a management strategy that incorporates appropriate ecological indicators. One consequence of this approach is that criteria by which the health/integrity of an ecosystem is judged will be a function of the nature of that system, and of specific stresses acting upon it. This ecosystem-specific definition of health will result in development of ecosystem specific indicators rather than ``generic`` indicators. Selection of appropriate indicators will depend on a variety of factors including: stakeholder input, the specific issues of concern; the scale(s) of relevance (spatial, temporal and organizational); the cost versus return in knowledge provided by each potential indicator; and the form of management strategy (preservation vs. remediation). The importance of these considerations will be illustrated using examples from the Northern River Basins Study.
- OSTI ID:
- 211955
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Ecological integrity and the management of ecosystems: Considerations of scale and hierarchy
The EMAP: Ecological indicators of condition