Investigating habitat value to inform contaminant remediation options: Case study

Valuing Wildlands

“…Disturbance is not easily measured as a broad value metric, but descriptions of specific disturbances have been used in valuation studies. For example, in a habitat valuation study, Efroymson et al (2008aEfroymson et al ( , 2008b) included examples of disturbances or management practices as part of the site descriptions that were used in the analysis of habitat complexity, land cover, and ecological corridors: presence of invasive biota, presence of weir, presence of concrete liner, absence of riparian zone, erosion, substantial nutrient influx, presence of chemical contamination, pine beetle damage, plantation land cover, presence of burial ground, mowing, presence of roads, presence of buildings, and presence of scrap metal.…”

“…Habitat value metrics representing some of these environmental attributes were recently applied to environmental remediation decisions for chemical contaminants. We conducted a study that was intended to identify metrics of habitat value that might supplement formal EcoRA of contaminants to help decisionmakers prioritize wildland and non-wildland sites for remediation (Efroymson et al 2008a(Efroymson et al , 2008b. Methods were developed to summarize dimensions of habitat value for several aquatic and terrestrial contaminated sites at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) on the US Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Reservation in Oak Ridge, TN, USA.…”

“…Moreover, different weightings of the various indicators might be appropriate for different potential users of environmental benefits indices; a single index is not very useful. Furthermore, indicators developed at one spatial scale may be not be useful to a decision that targets a different spatial scale (Efroymson et al 2008a(Efroymson et al , 2008b. Some of Suter's (1993) criticisms of ecosystem health indices also apply to the aggregation of variables into a multimetric index of environmental benefit.…”