Enhancing Ecological Systems: Sustainable Infrastructure Design Principles

1. Ecological SystemsMaintaining and Enhancing Natural Features and Minimizing Adverse Impacts of Infrastructure ProjectsCourse Review

2. Emily Mitchell Ayers, Ph.D. The Low Impact Development Center, Inc. emayers@lowimpactdevelopment.org

3. Key Message • Human activities often have adverse environmental impacts • Learning to design infrastructure systems that successfully integrate with the environment requires an understanding of ecology and a knowledge base of sustainable design techniques 7-3

4. Course Objectives • To be able to account for basic principles of ecology when making engineering decisions in infrastructure projects • To learn techniques to prevent, minimize, and mitigate these impacts • To learn how to produce infrastructure systems that contribute to productive, environmentally restorative and socially desirable uses of land and protection of native flora and fauna 7-4

5. Modules of the Course • Course Overview: Ecosystem services and the importance of ecologically-sensitive projects • Introduction to Ecology: Ecological theory • Impacts of Infrastructure: What are the major ecological impacts caused by infrastructure, and how do infrastructure projects cause these impacts? 7-5

6. Modules of the Course • Protecting Habitat: Assessing habitat, prioritizing and creating conservation areas • Integrating Infrastructure: Producing infrastructure projects that work in harmony with their surroundings • Restoring Ecological Function: Applying the general theory of ecosystem restoration, with examples of restoration in specific contexts 7-6

7. Ecosystem Services • Ecosystems provide essential services on which humans depend • Provisioning services • Regulating services • Supporting services • Cultural services • Disturbance of ecosystems can lead to loss or degradation of ecosystem services 7-7

8. Introduction to Ecology • What are ecosystems? • What principles govern ecosystem behavior? • How do ecosystems respond to change? 7-8

9. What is an Ecosystem? • Ecosystem: a unit that consists of living and non-living components interacting to form a system • Ecosystems are made up of populations of species organized into communities interacting with their physical environment • Ecosystems are almost always open systems with inputs and outputs 7-9

10. What Principles Govern Ecosystem Behavior? • Ecosystems develop complex feedback mechanisms to conserve materials and energy. • Organisms self-organize into food webs and nutrient cycling pathways. • Each species inhabits a unique ecological niche, and plays a role in maintaining the system. • Keystone species play essential roles. Loss can disrupt ecological function. 7-10

11. How Do Ecosystems Respond to Change? • Ecosystems are always changing, either due to pulsing predator/prey relationships, disturbance, or gradual succession from pioneer to climax systems • Ecosystem stability is described in terms of resistance to change and resilience • Stability depends on biodiversity, size, location, and connectivity 7-11

12. Impacts of Infrastructure • What ecological impacts are associated with infrastructure? • How do ecosystems become degraded? • What are the local, national, and global implications? 7-12

13. What Ecological Impacts Are Associated With Infrastructure? • Habitat loss • Habitat fragmentation • Pollution • Altered river and estuary hydrology • Climate change • Road kills 7-13

14. How Do Ecosystems Become Degraded? • Direct habitat loss • Habitat fragmentation • Damage to physical environment • Chemical toxicity • Hunting and harvesting • Introduction of exotic species

15. Impacts in the United States • Habitat loss and fragmentation • Depletion of fresh water resources • Eutrophication • Hydromodification • Air pollution

16. Global Impacts • Depletion of fresh water resources • Climate change • Excessive nutrient loading • Loss of biodiversity • Habitat loss

17. Ecologically-Sensitive Design Process • Know where you are • Avoid sensitive areas • Minimize infrastructure impacts • Mitigate unavoidable losses • Improve ecological function where possible

18. Protecting Habitat • Site assessment • Identification of critical resources • Conservation design techniques 7-18

19. Site Assessment • Begin ecologically-sensitive projects with a thorough site assessment • Identify important habitat areas • Understand how site fits into larger regional landscape

20. Identifying Critical Resources • Conserve the most important habitat areas • Viable, intact communities • Vulnerable, rare, or sensitive communities • Endemic communities (locally unique) • Maintain and improve connectivity to promote wildlife movement

21. Conservation Design • Focus development in areas that are: • Previously disturbed • Fragmented • At the edges rather than the center of intact communities • Maintain and improve connectivity to promote wildlife movement

22. Integrating Infrastructure • Identifying the energy signature • Anticipating infrastructure impacts • Minimizing infrastructure impacts

23. The Energy Signature • Infrastructure projects interact with the ecosystems in which they are situated • The set of forcing functions affecting an ecosystem is known as the energy signature • Minimizing infrastructure impacts requires understanding and protecting the energy signature of the ecosystem

24. Forcing Functions • Sunlight level • Temperature • Precipitation • Hydrologic regime • Fire regime • Inputs • Organic matter • Nitrogen • Phosphorus

25. Key Considerations for Infrastructure • Maintain pre-development hydrology • Maintain pre-development nutrient inputs • Minimize pollution • Maintain pre-development plant cover • Avoid introduction of exotic invasive species

26. Restoring Ecological Function • Basic principles of ecological restoration • Focus on function, not appearance • Rely on self-organization as much as possible • Examples of restoration techniques • Streams • Wetlands • Lakes and Ponds • Upland ecosystems 7-26

27. Basic Principles of Ecological Restoration • Consult with experts • Remove barriers to ecological function • Establish key species to jump-start self-organization • Provide connectivity to existing habitat • Be patient!

28. Examination • Multiple choice • Covers material from each module • Tests understanding of key concepts • Application of principles