How to restore wetlands and protect the habitat of different species

1. Wetland
Restoration, Enhancement and
Creation

2. Restoration
 Focuses on Restoring habitat
 Generally states a return to some previous state
 According to Society for ecological restoration
International (SERI)
 “The recovery of ecosystem that has been
degraded, damaged or destroyed”
 According to Carins 1988
“Full or partial placement of structural or functional
characteristics that has been extinguished or
diminished and the substitution of alternative
qualities… with the proviso that they have more
social, economic or ecological value than existed in the
disturbed or displaced state”

3. Terminology
Wetland
repair
terminology
Restoratio
n
Enhanceme
nt
Creation
Rehabilita
tion
reclamatio
n
Mitigation
Increasing one
or more of the
functions
performed by
an existing
wetland
beyond
currently or
previously
existed
Converting
a non-
wetland to
a wetland
Conversion of
wetland to
another type of
land such as
agriculture or
forestry
Any
development or
conversion
activity directly
impacting
wetlands must
be balanced with
the
restoration, enha
ncement or
creation of
wetland
Treatment of the
damage or the
degradation which
results in a gain in
wetland function
Return of a degraded
wetland to a pre-
existing condition or
as close to that
condition as possible

4. Design Principles
• 9 design principles
• For the restoration of wetlands
incorporate ecological, economic and
social considerations to ensure self-
sustaining and resilient systems.
1. Self organizing and sustaining systems
 Key to long term success independent of human
management
 Flexible, self-organizing units that adapt continually to
their changing environments
 Make them more resilient to threats
 Focus on restoring natural functional process through
the bioengineering of hydrological patterns, nutrient
cycles, native flora and faunal communities and dynamic
erosion and deposition processes could ensure such
ecological integrity
2. Systems approach
 Is one that adopts a holistic view, considering an
ecosystem in its entirety rather than as separate
individual component parts.
 Synthesize the most appropriate elements and
technologies from a wide diversity of fields.
 Implementation contribute o a unique understanding of
a system’s functional and structural aspects.
3. Restoring structure and function
 Alterations to the structural and morphological
characteristics of wetlands due to their conversion to
other land uses may affect ecological functions.
 Restoration techniques focus on re-engineering
morphological site characteristics which help re-
establishing wetland functional processes.
 Implementation of simple, ecologically sound structural
engineering approaches.
4. Employing renewable resources
 To minimize or avoid long-term human maintenance
cost a wetland must be designed to have as many
renewable resources as possible.
 This would support ecological integrity and make the
restores system more resilient to disturbance and
adaptable to changes
5. Reflecting local geography
 A wetland rehabilitation project must be integrated in
the context of the broader landscape and watershed
within which it is located either through biotic or a-
biotic exchanges
 Restoration projects are necessarily localized.
6. Adaptive management
 Ensures that adjustment could be made to overall
restoration during any stage of its implementation
according new information
 Do not always follow the same path and many
unanticipated events could necessitate changes
 Monitoring is essential.
7. Balancing ecosystem and human needs
 A fine balance between human needs and its environment.
 Allowing regeneration of the ecosystem and the
preservation of its ecological processes.
 Increased demand for resource may place pressure on
existing ecosystems and thus restoration project may
incorporate indigenous resource-use strategies.
 For success its hould be open to community ans stake
holders,
8. Planning for disturbance
 Restored system must be resilient enough to
withstand and recover from natural and human
induced stresses.
 They should be able to endure natural
catastrophic events.
9. Monitoring, evaluation and stewardship
 Monitoring at each step is necessary during and after the
project,
 Evaluation criteria and performance expectations for
restored ecosystem are generally spelled out during the
initiation of a project.
 Reference ecosystems are used for evaluation

5. Restoration and enhancement
considerations
• Selecting a site
• Geographic analysis
• Understanding degradation
• Selecting a reference ecosystem
• Planned enhancement
• Stakeholder ecosystem
• Implementation steps
• Monitoring and evaluating
1. Selecting a site
Ecological importance of site itself
Expected environmental and social benefits from restoration
both local and those beyond the immediate region
Economic costs to be expended
Availability of financial resources
Long term economic benefits through increased tourism or
habitat protection
Specific local benefits to communities and stakeholders
Anticipated technical difficulties in executing a project and
possible solutions
2. Geographic analysis
Studying a site’s geographic present and past include its
topography, surface and ground water hydrology, soils, species
composition, and other landscape features through
field surveys
Maps
Inventories
past histories.
3. Understanding degradation
Inventorying conditions that had led to degradation- necessary
part of initial planning process, including
Older aerial photographs
Topographic maps
Planning documents
Interviews with informants
Site history
4. Selecting a reference ecosystem
A reference ecosystem or multiple ecosystems should be
identified and used as models through the restoration process
and later for the evaluation and comparison purposes
5. Planned enhancements
Plans are about
How wetlands function
How processes are enhanced or restored
Focus areas may address
Wetland hydrodynamics
Soil conditions
Vegetation and faunal habitat
Outline actions to be implemeted
6. Stakeholder input
Input and support from stakeholders directly or indirectly
affected by a restoration and enhancement project.
Awareness and publicizing the planned restoration project
Provide incentives
7. Implementation steps
Step by step plan must be device
Future operation and maintenance plans must be outlined
Explanation of strategies
8. Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation plans both during and beyond the
completion of the project
Periodic assessment to evaluate the heath and condition of a
restored ecosystem

6. Approaches to wetland
restoration and enhancement
• Active approach
 Involve physical engineering efforts which may include
alterations to topography, soil and hydrology of the site
 Use of large earth equipments
• Passive approach
 Restoration enhancement through the removal of factors
that reduce a wetland’s resilience and viability
 Allows a wetland to regenerate naturally by removing
any problematic factor and reducing the source of
degradation

7. Approaches to wetland
restoration and enhancement
• Active approach
• Landscape contouring
• Topographic excavation
• Breaching levees
• Dam and weir removal
• Rerouting roads and
embankments
• Increasing culvert size
• Reconnecting natural creeks and
inlets
• Restoring the hydro-period
• Plugging drainage ditches
• Removing spillways
• Bioengineering
• Species introduction
• Connecting wetland patches
through corridor connections
• Passive approach
• Restricting human or livestock
• Natural floral and faunal re-
colonization
• Eliminating water controls
• Allowing natural flood events

8. Treatment wetlands
• Two types
1. Artificial treatment wetlands
2. Water mining treatment
Artificial treatment wetlands
Constructed, artificial or treatment wetlands, which
act as waste water treatment wetlands
They act as natural filters which traps the
SS, PM, litter and debris.
Vegetation and microbes aid in uptake of N and P.
By chemical processes remove toxic metals i.e
lead, copper and mercury, thus water is filtered and
decontaminated.
Construction requires careful
engineering, consideration of
soil, hydrology, topography and surrounding land-use
Contaminated mine water treatment
Used to clean-up the consequences of past mining.
Highly polluted water and contain many heavy
metals and their by-products.
Pollution and health impacts caused he ceasing of
mining in tri-state mining state in southern Missouri.
Suddenly the water started to discharge naturally in
1979 through open mine shafts, springs and artesian
wells.
In the start it was acidic but soon became alkaline.
Concept of treatment wetland across.
The completed system include:
Passive treatment
Monitoring and evaluation
•10 distinct process
units
•Single initial oxidation
pond( cell 1)
•Parallel surface flow
aerobic wetlands (cell
2N and 2S)
•Vertical flow bio-
reactors(cell 3N and 3S)
•Re-aeration ponds(cell
4N and 4S)
•Horizontal flow
limestone beds (cell
•5N and 5S)
•Singling polishing
pond-wetland(cell 6)