| This document was prepared by Sarah Slack, a National Network for Environmental Management Studies (NNEMS) grantee under a fellowship from the U.S. EPA. This report recommends an approach for assessing a site's ecosystem services (the benefits that humans derive from ecosystems) prior to site remediation as a means to qualitatively or quantitatively track ecosystem changes associated with cleanup activities and to identify opportunities for avoiding or mitigating a cleanup project's negative effect on the ecosystem. Based on literature research and personal communications, the report presents background information on the concept of ecosystem services, as well as steps interested parties can take to mitigate or avoid impacts to ecosystem services at a site level throughout the remediation process. The report outlines replicable practices that remedial project managers can utilize when attempting to mitigate adverse impacts on an ecosystem. This report also describes the current state of data collection methods and issues pertinent to the ecosystem service assessment process, with the ultimate aim of fostering production of a replicable methodology that can lead to greener cleanup. |
Download (627KB/34pp/PDF)
View Archive of Aug 18, 2010 Seminar
|
|