| Author | Linan, Efren Laguda |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-09-07 |
| Subject(s) | Wetlands--Environmental aspects--Evaluation--Southeast Asia
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| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), a major internationally developed approach to assess the health of the Earth's ecosystems in relation to human well-being, is a vital tool helping to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. The MA strongly linking human well-being to that of ecosystems (e.g., wetlands) is a concept to ensure improved management and sustainable services of wetlands while maintaining ecological integrity. The presented research aligns methodology of the Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) with MA. The alignment was affected through integration of the concept of "human well-being", defined as "basic material for good life, health, security, good social relations and freedom and choice", into the CEA tool to provide an insight on the extent of cumulative effects on the multifunction of wetlands which consequently decreased provision of human well-being and on how effective management strategy can be done to balance development projects, wetlands integrity and human well-being. CEA is applied in South and Southeast Asia where wetlands (ranging from estuaries, mangroves, coral reefs to paddy fields and freshwater marshlands, both constructed and natural) play an increasingly multi-functional role. For an effective management intervention, the pathways of cumulative effects was traced and further assessment of the interactions among drivers (stressors) as well as their interactions with wetland components and human well-being are important to understand. The present study comprised two components: 1) specific field data collection for seven study sites (N., C. and S. Vietnam, Gulf of Thailand, W. and S. Philippines and SW. Sri Lanka) to be applied for the following component; 2) development of new quantitative CEA tool. The field work was undertaken from May to August 2008 and from October 2008 until February 2009, parallel to and in conjunction with the research by two EEM MSc students, Ms. Bui Thi Thy (study area: Hoi An delta, C. Vietnam) and Mr. Vo Tran Tuan Linh (study area: Van Phong and Nha Trang bays, S. Vietnam), who were the members of the AIT- WAP (Wetland Alliance Partnership) Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) team. The CEA analysis in this study involved three phases: the first phase selected components of a cumulative effects assessment, including (a) identification of sources of environmental impacts (b) selection of a set of valued ecosystem components and the multifunction (services) affected, and (c) use of a set of key indicators to examine cumulative effects arising from the aggregate of human activities. The second phase was the impact prediction using: 1) cumulative effects assessment through expert opinion; 2) Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA); 3) biogeochemical analysis using water quality as indicator to determine effects at temporal scale; 4) biodiversity survey which is one of the indicators of wetland health and conditions; and 5) Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing of land use changes to determine effects at spatial scale. The third phase described and evaluated the mitigation and monitoring measures. Quantifying the predicted impacts of the cumulative effects using binary logistic regression and other statistical tests provided veritable picture of the state of wetland ecosystems. Mitigation and monitoring measures can be focused on several specific driver's (stressors) which possibly reinforce each other to avoid cumulative effects which can be determined by correlating all the drivers and multifunction using Spearman's correlation(at p>0.01) This mitigation measure can be effective specifically at developing worlds in which financial constraints prevail. Multi-factorial analysis intrinsic to CEA is seen as a relevant approach to the wetland multifunction. The developed CEA methodological approach overcomes the difficulty of quantifying cumulative effects in which an enormous data complexity on interactions of numerous drivers (stressors) and multiple functions existed. With an additional work further undertaken, this approach will be simplified making it possible to finalize the development of the tool straightforward enough for the local Wetland Alliance Partners in Vietnam as well as in other regional countries, the tool which will facilitate sustainable multifunctional use of wetland resources. |
| Year | 2009 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shipin, Oleg V.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Chongrak Polprasert;Sajor, Edsel E.;Ebbers, Theo; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | IFP;Ford Foundation;Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2009 |