PNNL

Abstract

Planners are being called upon to prioritize marine shorelines for conservation status and restoration action. This study documents an approach to determining the conservation or restoration strategy most likely to succeed, based on current conditions at local and landscape scales. The analysis is structured by an ecosystem conceptual model, which identifies anthropogenic impacts, or stressors, as well as targeted ecosystem functions. A scoring system, weighted by geomorphic class, is applied to available spatial data on stressors and functions at three scales: shorezone unit, drift cell reach, and watershed. Appropriate conservation and restoration strategies are paired with sites based on the likelihood of producing resilience to disturbance given the condition of local and landscape scale ecosystem structures and processes. This decision framework augments historical conditions and change analysis, as well as ecosystem valuation, providing a science-based planning tool in GIS.