Wetland Science
Review of International Coastal Wetland Restoration Practices
Dr Will Glamore
Senior Project Engineer/Research Fellow
Water Research Laboratory
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of New South Wales
A synopsis written by Liza Schaeper:
Dr Will Glamore undertook a Churchill Fellowship in 2005 that allowed him to travel to the USA, Holland, Vietnam and New Zealand to compare and contrast wetland restoration practices overseas with his experience of wetland restoration projects in Australia. His main interest is coastal tidal wetlands.
In each country Dr Glamore spoke to scientists and engineers, visited wetlands and attended relevant conferences. He determined that there were significant differences between Australian and overseas wetlands due to variations in the natural environment, including; geology, soils and tides.
Differences were also found in the impetus for restoring wetlands.
Dr Glamore identified 3 major forces that lead to wetland restoration projects in Australia. They are:
- Restoring wetlands as compensation for environmental damaged caused through development,
- remediation of acid sulfate soils, and
- migratory bird habitat enhancements.
In countries visited, Dr Glamore found the major impetus for wetland restoration projects to be:
- Sediment replacement projects, required where upstream rivers had been diverted or dammed (USA),
- creation of mudflats (USA),
- wetland banking exercises (USA), and
- creation of tidal wetlands to reduce flood risk (USA and Netherlands).
Despite the differences in the wetlands themselves and the impetus to restore, there were a number of practices and techniques observed overseas which could improve methods for restoring wetlands in Australia.
Lessons learnt – Technical Systems
In summary, Dr Glamore found a need for:
- An Australian Coastal Wetland Engineering Manual,
- Further study into the relationship between ecology and hydraulics, with an aim of attaining the capacity to model wetland systems,
- Consideration of the use of wetlands as flood retention basins, and more generally as part of the larger social and environmental system.
Lessons learnt – Data and Equipment
Data: Data: There is a need for extensive and high quality data collection to ensure the longterm viability of wetland restoration activities. In the USA collaborative approaches helped individual organizations to cope with the high cost and time involved.
Equipment: Dr Glamore encountered custom made wetland monitoring and works equipment, including:
- Autonomous underwater vehicles that can collect water samples and hydrodynamic information, and,
- Swamp dozers in the Florida Everglades with sealed buoyancy units that could be floated to work sites and operate in very wet conditions, thus avoiding soil compaction.
Lessons Learnt – Paradigm Shift
The shift to total catchment management has shown the government to have an understanding of the environmental systems that effect wetlands. To better manage coastal wetlands, Australia could benefit from further changes to the approach of dealing with wetland conservation and management practices, including:
- Improved Government programs and legislation, including
- The creation of a nation wide estuary management program, similar to the USA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
- legislative changes to help drive wetland restoration and compensation projects and
- the creation of a wetland banking system,
- Bringing the responsibility for discharges from acid sulfate soils back to the property owner, thus encouraging improvements in the health of wetlands that are not part of a formal wetland restoration project, and,
- The need for engineering guidelines
Dr Glamore’s Churchill Fellowship report contains a list of research areas which could be the subject of engineering guidelines. Taken directly from the report, that list is:
- The development of mature channel networks in Australian conditions;
- Basic standards for monitoring and assessing wetland development
- The design life standard for a coastal wetland;
- The effective size and dimension of islands within a tidal marsh flat
- Channel hydraulic design methodologies;
- A review of appropriate numerical models and limitations to employ in wetland design;
- A review of hydraulic structure designs appropriate for coastal wetlands
- A review of the various types of modified floodgates used in Australia to control water levels;
- A review of engineering works commonly used to filter out undesirable species;
- A review of hydro-period versus plant type (with modified salinities) in NSW;
- An assessment of fish passage structures and invertebrate colonisation from newly restored/created tidal wetlands;
- The use of Argus video cameras in monitoring channel design;
- The technical role coastal wetlands play in sediment transport and retention within NSW estuaries;
- The minimum effective size of a coastal wetland.
Recommendations:
The report advises the need for:
- Development of a coastal engineering guideline,
- A wetland design certification process,
- A federal estuaries program including a strategic plan for wetland management funding,
- Creation of wetland compensation legislation,
- Creation of a system (possibly wetland banking) to discontinue unsustainable land management practices, and
- Increased research into eco hydrology for the purposes of wetland design.
Full Report:
The full text of Dr Glamore’s Churchill Fellowship report is available for online viewing or downloading:
Report of International Coastal Wetland Restoration Practices [PDF – 1.1 MB]
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