Considering Fish as Recipients of Ecosystem Services Provides a Framework to Formally Link Baseline, Development, and Post-operational Monitoring Programs and Improve Aquatic Impact Assessments for Large Scale Developments

Abstract

In most countries, major development projects must satisfy an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process that considers positive and negative aspects to determine if it meets environmental standards and appropriately mitigates or offsets negative impacts on the values being considered. The benefits of before-after-control-impact monitoring designs have been widely known for more than 30 years, but most development assessments fail to effectively link pre- and post-development monitoring in a meaningful way. Fish are a common component of EIA evaluation for both socioeconomic and scientific reasons. The Ecosystem Services (ES) concept was developed to describe the ecosystem attributes that benefit humans, and it offers the opportunity to develop a framework for EIA that is centred around the needs of and benefits from fish. Focusing an environmental monitoring framework on the critical needs of fish could serve to better align risk, development, and monitoring assessment processes. We define the ES that fish provide in the context of two common ES frameworks. To allow for linkages between environmental assessment and the ES concept, we describe critical ecosystem functions from a fish perspective to highlight potential monitoring targets that relate to fish abundance, diversity, health, and habitat. Finally, we suggest how this framing of a monitoring process can be used to better align aquatic monitoring programs across pre-development, development, and post-operational monitoring programs.

Examination of recent hydroelectric dam projects in Canada for alignment of baseline studies, predictive modeling, and postdevelopment monitoring phases of aquatic environmental impact assessments

“…Given the scientific criticisms of EIA and the inability of many EIAs to have baseline data and predictive modeling support postdevelopment monitoring, considering the environment from the perspective of fish, or similarly valued biota, can help to guide science activities. Brown et al (2022) provides such a framework for consistency of indicators between the phases of an EIA. More must be expected from EIAs for proper evaluation and management of the environment to occur.…”

“…The main science components of each EIA (i.e., baselines, predictions, monitoring) were assessed in the context of ES from a fish's perspective. What constitutes ES from a fish's perspective, and what should be assessed during the baseline, predictive, and monitoring phases of an EIA, are discussed in detail in Brown et al (2022) and only briefly summarized here. Different species of fish require various types and/or levels of food, dissolved oxygen (DO), thermal habitat, water flow, water quality, sediment, life stage habitat (i.e., spawning, nursery, migratory, and overwintering), and connectivity between these areas.…”

“…We know that EIA practice has been heavily criticized for its integration of science and ensuring consistency in which variables are assessed, and how, but there has been limited analyses of this based on ES framing. Interpreting ES in terms of protecting the critical ecosystem attributes and aquatic services required by fish can provide measurable attributes and objectives essential to aligning information requirements across the phases of an EIA (Brown et al, 2022).…”

Sediment assessment, management, and regulation in the 21st century

“…It considers the chemical and physical characteristics of sediment that contribute to the health of aquatic ecosystems, including the quality of overlying waters and aquatic food chains. Advances have been made in the interpretation of the ecosystem services both provided and affected by sediments (Apitz, 2012), as well as environmental baseline values used to identify the nature and extent of environmental changes outside the range of natural variability (Brown et al, 2022).…”