Wetlands and Urbanization: Implications for the Future
Herrera senior scientist Amanda Azous co-edited a book on wetlands that provides insight to the assessment, monitoring, and management of these important resources.
Book description from Amazon.com:
Urbanization affects wetlands in direct and indirect ways. Over the past several decades it has become increasingly apparent that unmanaged runoff is the primary threat to the country’s watershed resources.
Wetlands and Urbanization: Implications for the Future is the result of a ten year research project focused on the understanding and managing the impacts of urban stormwater on wetlands. The book documents the background, methods, and results of the research and uses the information to draw conclusions about managing wetland ecosystems in urban areas.
The project culminates in a set of comprehensive guidelines for the management of wetland hydrology. While the focus of this research is regional in nature, its applications are broad. First, the research shows how to measure and assess the impact of urbanization on wetlands. Secondly, it presents scientific approaches available for use in an integrated assessment of wetland condition. And thirdly, it provides guidelines for biomonitoring wetlands using multiple indicators.
Wetlands and Urbanization presents an integrated watershed approach to the scientific evaluation of the impact of landscape urbanization on wetland functions. It associates the source of impact (the landscape) with the sink (the wetland), relates findings to implications for future planning and management of watersheds and provides a model for future comprehensive investigations of wetland impacts from urbanization.
The Table of Contents (as well as several other pages) is available from the page for the book on Amazon.com.
Following are excerpts from a review of the book by Helen Engle, who has held significant positions with the National Audubon Society, the Washington Environmental Council, the Washington Native Plant Society, and People for Puget Sound.
Wetlands, as the editors of this important compilation of wetlands research and monitoring data point out, are the absolute basic building blocks of a healthy ecosystem– from flood storage and pollutant trapping to groundwater recharge and discharge, shoreline stabilization, food chain support and critically important habitat in the lives of fish and wildlife of uncountable species.
The book points out that the decades of intensive studies of upland birds– of the forests and fields– had no counterpart in the species-rich wetlands. Our nearby urban wetlands provide resting, feeding, breeding habitat for a wide diversity of birds– including of course waterfowl– and provide high quality passive recreation in densely populated urban areas. The data collected and referenced here is invaluable.
This book is a treasure trove– even if you only read one chapter. If you can’t buy it, ask your library to put it on the shelves. Its timely values for us in the age of “Restore the Salmon” are the comprehensive guidelines for wetlands management, not only for urban managers but for the home gardener, farmer, and ephemeral-flowing-ditch-watcher. The native and recommended non-invasive plant species, for instance, is a beautiful list. A comprehensive source of support material, definitions and glossary, and guides of all kinds make this the book for our organizations to use.
Wetlands and Urbanization: Implications for the Future Edited by Amanda L. Azous, Richard R. Horner* Lewis Publishers, 2000, 338 pages.
* Besides Amanda Azous and Richard Horner, the Puget Sound Wetlands and Stormwater Management Research Program Team also included Klaus O. Richter, Lorin E. Reinelt, and Sarah S. Cooke. Other authors include Marion Valentine, Ken Ludwa, Brian Taylor, and Nancy Chinn. Numerous federal, state and local agencies, academic institutions and other local interests participated in the research program.