Since wetlands were first subject to federal regulation in the 1970s, federal agencies have been attempting to develop techniques for assessing wetland functions. Wetlands could also be "ranked" according to their potential to provide a given function, helping managers understand where wetlands are performing particular functions and at what level (moderate or high). The functional assessment procedures (FAPs) in … The qualitative wetland functional assessment provides a means of eval-uating key wetland functions inherent to single wetlands or groups of wetlands in the project area. Assessing the value of wetlands involves methods of social science, especially economics. The committee—whose members were drawn from academia, government, business, and the environmental community—builds a rational, scientific basis for delineating wetlands in the landscape and offers recommendations for further action. A wetland is compared to similar wetlands that are relatively unaltered. Decisions about whether to protect wetlands or how much to spend on wetland protection are policy decisions based in part on the value society places on wetlands. Hydrogeomorphic functional assessment models – Slopes II.B.3.a.4. An example would be kilograms of sediment removal per hectare per year. The first attempt at evaluating wetland functions for regulatory purposes emerged in the USACE permit regulations of 1975, which were revised in 1977 and 1986. (1979) for the National Wetlands Inventory, for example, was designed to describe classes of wetlands, arrange them in a system useful to resource managers, and provide a standard set of concepts and terms. NOAA and Douglas County enlisted GSS in August 2013 to provide the wetland data and GIS analysis products that can then inform local decisions regarding wetlands and surface water. 9 REGULATION OF WETLANDS: ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 3 WETLAND DEFINITIONS: HISTORY AND SCIENTIFIC BASIS, 4 WETLAND DELINEATION: PAST AND CURRENT PRACTICE, 5 WETLAND CHARACTERIZATION: WATER, SUBSTRATE, AND BIOTA, 8 MAPS, IMAGES, AND MODELING IN THE ASSESSMENT OF WETLANDS. These regulations list wetlands that provide functions important to the public interest, including support of food chains and wildlife habitat, education and recreation, prevention of erosion, reduction of storm or flood damage, ground water discharge and recharge, water purification, and maintenance of biological diversity (33 CFR 320.4). This would require evaluation of all wetlands within the boundaries of a particular watershed or planning area, accompanied by mapping of probable development patterns. Its program is funded through a special studies segment of the USACE regulatory budget. Monitoring and Assessing Pennsylvania Wetlands 2004 II. Wetlands perform many ecological functions that have value to society. This information may be useful for determining what current wetlands might be of high priority for preservation. The functions that are most likely to be associated with a particular regional subgroup are assessed by the use of functional models that describe and define the relationship between wetland functions, the wetland ecosystem, and the landscape within which the wetland is located. While in the field, Many wetland functions are considered useful or important by society. Functional assessments are also required for determining whether a drainage activity has a minimal effect on a wetland, and for determining the mitigation requirements for replacement of wetland functions if an existing wetland is converted to In 1981 the U.S. Water Resources Council published an analysis of 20 functional assessment methods used by the USACE Waterways Experiment Station. At Kodiak, one important function is the provision of habitat for salmon spawning, rearing, and migration. Functional assessment models have of necessity drawn extensively on the technical literature and expert opinion. A nationally or state recognized rapid functional assessment method isn’t available. if jurisdictional wetlands will be affected, the next step is to determine the location of the wetland boundary. Second, it uses functional indexes that can be quantified on a scale that is developed from reference wetlands. The index values that result from the application of these models can be used in the evaluation of wetland alteration or to mitigation of wetland alteration. The first decision in the review of a permit application is whether a site that would be affected by the applicant contains wetlands or other waters of the United States subject to regulatory jurisdiction. The forum also recommended the establishment of wetland mitigation banks, consistent with state wetlands conservation plans, through which permit recipients could satisfy compensation requirements (Conservation Foundation, 1988). This volume explores how to define wetlands. Some wetlands could be identified as deserving stringent protection, while wetlands of lower significance could be identified as appropriate for gen-. The program is defined administratively, rather than legislatively, through a regulatory guidance letter originally issued in October 1986. A wetland could be potentially effective in performing a particular function, for example, but there might be no opportunity for it to do so, or the function might not be significant to society. Similarly, the significance of the function—the degree to which a function is valued, used, or needed by society—is likely to increase as a landscape is developed. This system identifies five broad groups of wetlands on a national level. Wetlands of any of the categories can have a variety of wetland functions based on objective measurements (Bostwick, 1992). 3. b. The FHWA method was intended to provide a means of using field observa-. The numerical analysis of HEP permits alternative plans to be compared. The Wetland Evaluation Technique (WET) represents a revision of the Method for Wetland Functional Assessment, Volume II, authored by Mr. Paul R. Adamus under contract to the Federal Highway Administratio (FHWA)n Th. Important concepts in functional assessment of wetlands include functional capacity, predictors of function (indicators), and thresholds for functions. The FHWA method was designed specifically for use by state and federal highway departments, but was revised so that it could be used more broadly. Through ADID, developers and landowners benefit from predictability and consistency, and conservation interests can review and use information on wetland functions and values (EPA, 1988b). 4. As a drainage is developed, its ranking for such functions increases, even though the wetland itself might become environmentally degraded. USACE has adopted the SAMP concept for inland areas, as well as coastal areas. The functional analysis itself, however, is limited to functions that occur within the wetland. reduce this concern. HEP was designed primarily to evaluate the effects of proposed projects on fish and wildlife resources. This procedure is modeled after the hydrogeomorphic classification system, and was it promulgated in anticipation of the adoption of a wetland evaluation procedure derived from this system by the federal regulatory agencies. Examples include the prairie potholes of the upper midwest, which are isolated wetlands generally smaller than 10 acres (4 ha), but which provide vital wildlife habitat; and the wetlands of the Lake Calumet area in heavily industrialized southeast Chicago, which provide habitat for more than 170 bird species, of which 11 are listed by the state of Illinois as threatened or endangered (Kendall, 1990). 1995) • A Guidebook for Application of Hydrogeomorphic Assessments to Riverine Wetlands (Brinson et al. Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available. A threshold is a functional discontinuity across which a wetland changes qualitatively. The functional capacity of wetlands cannot be predicted from the frequency or duration of inundation alone, or from any other single characteristic. Primary research on functions within reference wetlands has been supported insufficiently in view of its relevance to quantification of functions through the use of functional indexes. A SAMP is a plan for natural resource protection consistent with economic growth. The manual states that "[m]inimal effect determinations involving restoration must be supported by an assessment that indicates that wetland values lost as a result of the conversion have been fully replaced by restoration." Temporal changes in wetland contexts expose a failing of the FHWA and other methods that use the concepts of opportunity and significance. Ready to take your reading offline? Functions assessment. These processes, such as ADID programs and SAMPs, allow state and local agencies to work with federal regulatory agencies in surveying wetlands and ranking them according to their relative functional capacity or value. wetland assessment methodologies that generate numerical weightings, rankings, and/or averaging of dissimilar wetland functions, which unnecessarily bias a project reviewer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Section 404(b)(1) guidelines allow regulators to consider the relative functional capacity of a wetland when determining the environmental costs of a proposed project as compared with alternatives (R. Wayland and M. Davis). The county was concerned about area flooding, turbidity, and sedimentation problems, while the citizens were showing interest in wetland mitigation policy and management. This comprehensive and practical volume will be of interest to environmental scientists and advocates, hydrologists, policymakers, regulators, faculty, researchers, and students of environmental studies. ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one. The National Wetlands Policy Forum of 1987 (Conservation Foundation, 1988) made several recommendations about wetland categorization (ranking). "Wetlands" has become a hot word in the current environmental debate. Landscape Level Wetland Functional Assessment Method March 26, 1997 quality improvement the Wetland should be Wetland that has potential, but is not Scored higher than a runoff. The second generation of the FHWA method (WET) uses a slightly different approach in that it ranks the probability that a wetland will perform a given function, and the significance of the function to society, rather than directly ranking the value of the wetland. Developed between 1996-2001, the methods assess how well a wetland improves water quality, reduces flooding, provides wildlife habitat, and performs other wetland functions. Corps regulations require that benefits of the proposed activity be balanced against its foreseeable detriments (33 CFR § 320.4(2)(i)). Some methods focus on individual wetlands, while others may be used to assess many wetlands in a larger area, such as a watershed. Habitat evaluation methods were the most common and the most elaborate. The procedure is done by a team of biologists who use file data, field observations, experience, statistical analysis, and simulation modeling to develop a habitat suitability model that expresses the quality of habitat through use of a habitat suitability index for individual species on a scale of 0-1. Functional assessment of wetlands is most useful in the context of watershed or landscape planning. Section 230.80 of EPA's 404(b)(1) guidelines (40 CFR § 230), allow EPA and the CWA Section 404 permitting authority to identify sites that are suitable or unsuitable to receive discharges of fill. Even within a given watershed, ranking systems and predetermined permit decisions are subject to a variety of criticisms. As described above, however, it is usually not possible to relate such categories in a reliable way to objective measures of wetland functions, in part because the relationships between them are variable and in part because we do not have enough scientific knowledge. The system developed by Cowardin et al. Methods, Results, and Products B. Some examples of ecological functions that wetlands can perform. The manual was developed from a large amount of information on the biological and ecological characteristics of wetlands. Compensatory mitigation is determined in part by functional impairment of a wetland. § 1452). HEP is used extensively by FWS for impact assessment, but it is not used regularly in the wetlands regulatory programs of USACE or NRCS. Many regulators consider the method too time consuming, and regulators and wetland scientists consider it too narrowly focused on fish and wildlife to be used in routine regulatory assessments of wetlands. For example, wetlands in urban settings might have higher value for recreation and education or for alternative uses of the site than wetlands in undeveloped lands or far from population centers. The functional indexes represent only a qualitative approximation of the functional capacity of wetlands. It consists of policies, standards, and criteria for use of public and private lands and waters. The Wetlands Function Assessment Project provides the scientific basis for our current wetland rating system. A wetland's value can be weighed directly or relative to other uses that could be made of the site; thus, the location of a wetland affects its value to society. - 1 Hydrogeomorphic Functional Assessment Models – Slopes Robert P. Brooks, Denice Heller Wardrop, Jennifer Masina Rubbo, Wendy M. … USACE published WET 2.0, a revised version of WET, in 1991. ADID has been applied to areas ranging from 14 mi.2 (36.4 km2) (Joliet, Illinois) to 4,200 mi.2 (10,920 km2) (Rainwater Basin, south central Nebraska). A functional approach to wetland assessment enables a holistic view to be taken of the wide range of services wetlands can provide. The Wisconsin - Minnesota Wetland Functional Assessment Initiative is an effort to develop wetland functional assessment tools that can be used in Wisconsin and Minnesota to assist in wetland regulatory implementation and for other wetland conservation and planning purposes as applicable. The image here shows an aerial view of an agricultural field prior to restoration activities, with the following GIS layers: 1) modeled surface flow lines created from a 10m DEM using a 200 cell contributing area threshold (yellow/green to blue lines indicating increasing flow accumulation - flow direction is to the southwest); 2) Compound Topographic Index (CTI) raster (blue, purple, pink pixels or cells) (a catchment analysis of a 10m DEM) where blue is low, purple is moderate, and pink is a high CTI; and 3) SSURGO soil map units (polygons) with a Soils Water Regime Rank 2 (yellow-shaded polygons) (in this case, these are “somewhat poorly drained soils”). For instance, habitat units might be expressed as squirrels per acre, or coveys of quail or broods of ducks per acre (FWS, 1980). Part of that value depends on a sound scientific knowledge of what wetlands do, i.e., a knowledge of wetland functions. In general, methods for wetland evaluation do not provide a means for direct comparison of wetlands on an areal basis, do not provide a basis for estimating mitigation ratios on an areal basis, are not readily adaptable to a variety of wetland types, and have data requirements that are too cumbersome for routine field application. The development of any wetland functional assessment procedure requires an iterative process to assess a wide assortment of field conditions. The data and information produced by this project will serve as a valuable source for resource planning within the National Wildlife Refuge and for stakeholders throughout the Kodiak Borough. Prohibitive designations could raise legal questions about the confiscation of property without due process or just compensation, although policies such as transfer of development rights could. Procedures for conversion of functions to societal value may become important, however, in establishing the relative importance of wetlands in the landscape. The original FHWA method ranks relative values of wetlands after consideration of the potential incompatibilities of functions. The LLWW and NWI systems, called NWIPlus when used together, provide land managers and other interested parties with an overview of wetland distribution and the types of wetland functions across large areas. Biological Assessments and functional assessments both evaluate the condition of individual wetlands by comparing them to the conditions found in an established set of reference wetlands. First, it recognizes that wetlands exist under a wide range of climatic, geomorphic, and hydrologic conditions that can cause variation in functions among wetlands. The NFSAM procedure for a minimal-effect determination under the terms of FSA contains a checklist of 13 wetland functions that are to be designated as either present or absent. Replacement of value requires replacement of underlying wetland functions. This approach facilitates consideration of the interaction between the wetland and surrounding landscape features, as well as the location of the wetland in the watershed.

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