Environmental Assessment for Sustainability and Resiliency for Ecological and Human Health

Abstract

Considerable attention has been devoted to environmental assessment and monitoring, primarily by physical and biological scientists, and more recently by social scientists. However, population growth and global change have resulted in an imperative to assess the resiliency of the environment to adapt to large scale changes and to continue to produce goods and services for future generations (sustainability). Changing land use needs or expectations may require the remediation and restoration of degraded or contaminated land. This paper provides an overview of monitoring types, and discusses how indicators for the different monitoring types can be developed to address questions of ecological health, human health, and whether restoration and remediation are effective. We suggest that along with more traditional types of monitoring, agencies should consider recovery indicators or metrics, as well as resiliency metrics. We suggest that one goal of assessment should be to determine if management, remediation, restoration, and mitigation reduce recovery time, thus reducing community vulnerability and enhancing resiliency to environmental stressors and disasters.

Keywords: Assessment; Ecological health; Human health; Indicators; Monitoring; Recovery; Resiliency.

Figure 1

Schematic of the relationship between different types of monitoring. Human and public health fit within ecological monitoring, which itself fits within physical monitoring. All types of monitoring need to take into account social, economic, environmental, and cultural considerations. Monitoring types, and the human dimensions, are essential for understanding and managing recovery, increasing resilience, and ensuring sustainability of systems.

Figure 2

End points that can be selected from the life cycle of salmon. Dotted lines indicate the connection between endpoints and different phases of the life cycle.