PLAN341 Lecture 14: PLAN 341 Lecture Notes
PLAN 341 Lecture Notes
- Hydrological cycle, weathering, slopes in order to understand why what is here and what
we did and what we can do to fix it.
- Biophysical, then problems, then solutions
- No memorizing things
Course Focus
▪ How do natural landscapes (ecosystems) function?
▪ What are the essential biophysical processes for healthy ecosystems?
▪ How does landscape change (i.e. agriculture, urbanization, resource extraction, natural
disturbance) alter the rate and magnitudes of these processes?
- Individually, one event may not cause damage
- Cumulatively is where the impact occurs
- Threshold: cannot go back from impact of change
▪ What are the environmental impacts of landscape change?
▪ What are the planning/management/engineering opportunities to maintain important
environmental resources?
Environmental Planning:
- All planning activities with the objective of preserving or enhancing environmental
values or resources (ecosystem services)
- Involves collection and synthesis of data, environmental design, policy development,
implementations and monitoring
Rockies – Source Waters for bulk of Alberta population
- Disturbance in headwaters affects water downstream
- Assessing cumulative effects (scale issues)
- Assessing implication/impact (water use, money)
Ecosystems
- Community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit
- An interdependent and dynamic system of living organisms with their physical and
geographical environment
- Abiotic and biotic components
- Structure and fuction
Ecosystem Components
Ecosystems
• Process, Structure, Function
• Diversity, Abundance, Productivity
• Scale – spatial and temporal
• Gradients (temperature, moisture, nutrients etc)
• Environmental Change: Natural vs Anthropogenic
Ecosystem Health
• The condition of an ecosystem, its individual parts, and their connections
Ecosystem Integrity
• A measure of the capacity of ecosystems to renew themselves and continually supply
resources and essential services.
• the degree to which all ecosystem elements -- species, habitats, and natural processes --
are intact and functioning in ways that ensure sustainability and long-term adaptation to
changing environmental conditions and human uses.
Ecosystem Resilience
• Measure of the magnitude of disturbance that can be absorbed before the (eco)system
changes its structure by changing the variables and processes that control behavior
• a measure of resistance to disturbance and the speed of return to the equilibrium state of
an ecosystem
Landscape Form and Function
Form Function Concept
• Deduce biophysical processes that operate at a site from forms we observe
• Actions taken as part of landscape planning will change landscape form and alter
physical, chemical and biological processes
• Need for balance
• Alteration of one component will have profound effect on other components
Concept of Thresholds
• In natural landscapes, a state of balance exists between driving forces (water, wind,
human impacts) and resisting forces
• When balance is altered, landscapes are prone to massive changes
• Balance maintained is conditional
Environmental Change of Mississippi River
Document Summary
Hydrological cycle, weathering, slopes in order to understand why what is here and what we did and what we can do to fix it. Involves collection and synthesis of data, environmental design, policy development, implementations and monitoring. Rockies source waters for bulk of alberta population. Ecosystems: process, structure, function, diversity, abundance, productivity, scale spatial and temporal, gradients (temperature, moisture, nutrients etc, environmental change: natural vs anthropogenic. Ecosystem health: the condition of an ecosystem, its individual parts, and their connections. Form function concept: deduce biophysical processes that operate at a site from forms we observe, actions taken as part of landscape planning will change landscape form and alter physical, chemical and biological processes. Need for balance: alteration of one component will have profound effect on other components. In natural landscapes, a state of balance exists between driving forces (water, wind, human impacts) and resisting forces: when balance is altered, landscapes are prone to massive changes, balance maintained is conditional.