HR: 08:45h
AN: NB21A-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Landscape Ecology Approaches for Detecting, Mapping, and Assessing the Vulnerability of Depressional Wetlands
AU: * Lopez, R
EM: lopez.ricardo@epa.gov
AF: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, 944 E. Harmon Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89119 United States
AB: U.S. EPA is using a landscape ecology approach to assess the ecological/hydrologic functions and related human values of depressional wetlands along coastal Texas, considered to be vulnerable to human disturbance. Many of those wetlands may be at high risk because of recent court rulings and associated jurisdictional interpretations. As a result of these rulings and interpretations, the interpreted area of freshwater depressional wetlands within the study region has been dramatically reduced. It is the general nature of the landscape that many of these wetlands are hydrologically connected via shallow ground swales that provide concentrated directional flow during rainfall events, thereby connecting these depressional wetlands to tributaries. A better understanding of the extent of depressional wetlands, regionally and nationally, is critical to inform policy discussions between federal agencies with joint jurisdiction on these scientific, legal, policy, and regulatory issues. Our approach is to integrate remote-sensing, geospatial information, existing field data, and a priori knowledge of depressional wetland ecology to estimate their extent, connectivity, and ecological/hydrologic functions. Those functions include support for aquatic life use; decreasing the loss of human life and property damage from floods; providing fish and wildlife habitat; and supporting recreational use of the environment.
DE: 0933 Remote sensing
DE: 1890 Wetlands
DE: 4815 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
DE: 6334 Regional planning
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly