The monitoring of complex natural systems - aspects of ecosystem management using wetlands as examples

Abstract

The Resource Management Act (1991) created a major shift in the legislative framework for environmental management in New Zealand. The Act devolved power to local and regional government, and focused on the environmental effects of human activities. Section 7 of the Act requires managers to manage ecosystems. This requirement is an implicit directive to environmental managers to address issues of scale in natural systems.

To practically manage natural systems it is necessary that the nature of complex systems be understood so that information for effective management can be collected. The preferred methodology for continuous information gathering is monitoring. The effective monitoring of complex systems requires that a conceptual base be created, which addresses the characteristics of ecosystems, and forms a structure for the organisation of monitoring. To that end, the Adaptive Cell Model has been developed in this research. The model is information based and has a nested structure. There are three cells, or compartments, that generate an integrated process for monitoring natural systems. The model is structured to work at the local level, which allows an adaptive approach to management of complex natural systems.

The operational expression of the Adaptive Cell Model was the field monitoring of three wetland sites in Canterbury, New Zealand. The three wetlands differ from one another in the conditions, settings and management objectives that form the context of each. Two wetlands, Travis Swamp and Wigram Retention Basin are in urban settings. The third wetland site monitored was a pair of tarns in the high country of Canterbury. The management objectives for each wetland ranged from restoration of plant communities to the effective capacity of one wetland to act as a sink for materials and substances drawn from an urban/industrial catchment.

Each site was monitored to gather general background information on the wetlands. In tandem with background monitoring, specific information relating to assessments of management experiments, structured by site-specific objectives, was gathered.