Using Structured Decision Making to Overcome Scale Mismatch Challenges in Barrier Removal for Watershed Restoration

Lin, Hsien‐Yung; Robinson, Kelly; Jones, Michael L.; Walter, Lisa M.

doi:10.1002/fsh.10342

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Models of eel watercourse colonisation assume that all density depression above dams are caused by passage impairment (Beentjes et al, 2016; Briand et al, 2022; Hoyle, 2016; Lambert et al, 2011). Campaigns to enhance watercourses by dam removals do not account for habitat reduction caused by draining of ponds (Hermoso et al, 2021; Lin et al, 2019; Martin, 2019b). An understanding of the role of small dams and ponds in eel conservation will require the expansion of dam inventories, measurements of eel abundance in impounded reaches and integration of these data into watershed‐scale modelling of eel abundance and dynamics (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thirteen novel ideas and underutilised resources to support progress towards a range‐wide American eel stock assessment

Cairns

Benchetrit

Bernatchez

et al. 2022

Fisheries Management Eco

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A robust assessment of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) stock, required to guide conservation efforts, is challenged by the species’ vast range, high variability in demographic parameters and data inadequacies. Novel ideas and underutilised resources that may assist both analytic assessments and spatially oriented modelling include (1) species and environmental databases; (2) mining of data from scattered sources; (3) infilling of data gaps by spatial analysis; (4) age estimation from measurements of DNA methylation; evaluation of eel abundance by (5) larval, (6) glass‐bottom boat, (7) net enclosure and (8) eDNA surveys; (9) accounting for dam‐induced habitat increases in eel watercourse modelling; (10) spatially oriented modelling with and without temporal components; (11) geographically nested modelling of glass eel recruitment; (12) spawner per recruit modelling and (13) life cycle modelling to examine larval allocation effects. Eel biologists are too few to gather the required assessment data across all of the species’ range. Public posting of electrofishing and eDNA metabarcoding data sets and the use of machine learning techniques to comprehensively inventory small dams will help meet some data needs. These approaches address only a small proportion of the assessment challenges that face American eels. Worldwide collaboration amongst Anguilla scientists is a key enabler of progress towards stock assessment goals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thirteen novel ideas and underutilised resources to support progress towards a range‐wide American eel stock assessment

Cairns

Benchetrit

Bernatchez

et al. 2022

Fisheries Management Eco

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“…Furthermore, decision makers and stakeholders might hold competing objectives. Applying a structured decision making framework is suggested to help address socio-economic issues and stakeholders' interests before running optimization models (Gregory et al, 2012;Lin, Robinson, Jones, & Walter, 2019a).…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade‐offs among road–stream crossing upgrade prioritizations based on connectivity restoration and erosion risk control

Lin

Robinson

Walter

2020

River Research & Apps

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Prioritizing projects to improve cost‐effectiveness has become a common practice in natural resources management, especially in selecting sites for river restoration work. Previous studies for prioritizing road–stream crossing upgrade projects focused on either restoring river connectivity or reducing sedimentation, even though crossings can affect connectivity and sedimentation simultaneously. In this study, we simulated site selection to maximize the improvement of connectivity restoration and sedimentation reduction of three prioritization schemes targeting (a) river connectivity, (b) erosion risk, or (c) both objectives concurrently and compared the results. Furthermore, we examined the relationships between the cost‐effectiveness of prioritizations and watershed characteristics. We found significant differences among the effectiveness of prioritization objectives; thus, trade‐offs should be taken into consideration when prioritizing crossings. The incorporation of spatial interdependency among crossings and weighting objectives could significantly change the cost‐effectiveness. We also found that splitting the budget and using a portion to individually prioritize each objective could be more cost‐effective than using the whole budget to achieve concurrent objectives. Watershed characteristics like size and connectivity‐ and sedimentation‐related factors could be used to help identify effective management for both connectivity restoration and sedimentation control.

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“…The decision-making process regarding whether to remove a dam or not, and which dam removals provide the greatest benefits is complex (Lin et al, 2019). Estimating the cost of removal or renovation is relatively straightforward as this is in the realm of standard civil and structural engineering analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting response of migratory fish populations to dam removal

Hayes

Fricano²,

Turek³

et al. 2023

Aquatic Ecosystem Health &Amp; Management

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Dam removal is a potential habitat restoration alternative through which parties responsible for injuries to natural resources can provide compensation for reductions in fish populations. Predicting the potential response of migratory fish populations to candidate dam removal(s) is a critical step in the natural resource damage assessment process to evaluate whether the proposed action provides adequate compensation. There is currently no standard approach to making such predictions, particularly in cases where data on candidate streams with dams are limited. We considered six modeling approaches for addressing this problem and evaluated the features of each approach for this application. We judged that an approach based on habitat suitability indices and weighted usable area provides the best balance between predictive capacity and cost of model implementation. This balancing act evaluating the cost effectiveness of predictive models is worth consideration in a wide range of fisheries modeling applications.

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Using Structured Decision Making to Overcome Scale Mismatch Challenges in Barrier Removal for Watershed Restoration

Cited by 8 publications

References 15 publications

Thirteen novel ideas and underutilised resources to support progress towards a range‐wide American eel stock assessment

Thirteen novel ideas and underutilised resources to support progress towards a range‐wide American eel stock assessment

Trade‐offs among road–stream crossing upgrade prioritizations based on connectivity restoration and erosion risk control

Predicting response of migratory fish populations to dam removal

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