Quantifying habitat quality - the missing dimension
Concern about the ecological health and biodiversity status of the fauna in the world‘s rivers has led to many national governments and international bodies instigating policies, laws, education programs and action plans to combat declining water quality and quantity. However, if the purpose of these programs is to halt, or even enhance, the ecological condition and biodiversity values of those waterbodies then we must also ensure adequate and quality habitat is available for those organisms. An abundance of clean water alone does not improve ecological condition if there is nowhere for the organisms to live or no way for them to reach those habitats. The use of habitat quality in resource management activities has been hampered by the lack of a simple and effective method to quantify the quality of that habitat. Here we use an assessment of river geomorphology to develop an index of natural character (Natural Character Index or NCI), which provides a geomorphic framework to quantify habitat condition. This approach assesses the degree to which reach geomorphology has changed from a ?natural benchmark‘ derived from the historical (pre-modification) condition at that reach. We provide examples deriving NCI in rivers subject to ongoing management in the lower North Island of New Zealand.
river geomorphology natural character NCI New Zealand
I.C.Fuller R.G.Death A.Death
Innovative River Solutions, Institute of Agriculture & Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
国际会议
The 3rd Biennial ISRS Symposium Achieving Healthy and Viable Rivers (ISRS)第3届国际河流大会
北京
英文
563-569
2013-08-05（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）