The restoration, enhancement, and creation of wetlands to compensate for net loss is important in upholding the structures, function, and productivity of these ecosystems. They are a vital support system in the natural environment, providing a unique habitat essential to biodiversity and serving as a buffer against anthropogenic contamination (Medland et al., 2020). Due to the extent of industrial disturbances, identifying key sites for optimal wetland creation is no simple task. Dispersed patches of wetlands must be close in proximity such that they can be used for refuge during migrational periods. Although our study area is quite large, our analysis yields small parcels of suitable locations. We were able to identify and recommend 5 optimal sites with a total span of 540 km², prioritizing areas where the weighted and equal-weighted models overlapped to ensure higher certainty of suitability and exceeding our initial target of compensating for 513.6 km². The best sites were concentrated in the Mid-North Eastern part of BC, with some near the South-West close to urban areas. Figure 11, comparing the proposed locations in relation/proximity to existing wetland, demonstrates that many optimal locations are already within wetland territory. However, these wetlands were quite fragmented, so our proposed sites intersecting established wetlands can provide opportunities to enhance and restore existing patch size and connectivity. Sites 1 and 2, being isolated from the existing wetland, are suitable for construction and creation projects which will require much more effort, labour, and costs.
We exceeded our initial target by 26.4 km², allowing for conservatism in compensating for the three development projects given the buffers around those three projects are ultimately arbitrary regardless of the research and arguments provided for each. The surplus resulting from Site 5 fulfills the need for having a substantially large area when attempting wetland creation as opposed to enhancement, a key principle in reserve design (William et al., 2005). Fortunately, this also compensates for the reduced net gain due to some sites intersecting existing wetlands.
Extensive research into the specific criteria for our analysis is a key measure to ensure the effective expansion of wetlands and our ambitious goals of increasing interconnected wetland areas. However, the price for such projects is hefty, as the creation or enhancement of wetland can cost at least $1000 per hectare in BC (“Wetland Ways”, 2009). Our project to create or enhance 540 km² (54000 ha) will need funding of at least $5.4 million and more to cover land purchase, planning, construction, equipment, labor, and material. Unfortunately, the value of these ecosystems is often undermined, thus we hope to shed light on the importance, complexity, and benefits of creation to avoid or at least compensate for further wetland degradation due to human activity.
From the results, we can observe the impacts and sensitivity of certain criteria highlights the maximum productivity of these ecosystems. Our sensitivity analysis (Figure 9) comparing the criteria weighted and equally weighted reveals how much control soil drainage type can influence the distribution of optimal sites. Furthermore, the differences and similarities between the raster outputs (Figure 9) can provide further evidence of this observation, as the weighted output (left) displays more variance in extreme values (shown by darker greens and orange/red ) than on the equal weight output (right) which values are quite moderate in comparison. The importance of soil is often underestimated in restoration discourses, nevertheless, soil supports ecosystem services we depend on such as water regulation and carbon storage. Conserving existing wetlands would also conserve soil that is often eroded from human activity, in turn, upholding the functions to maintain life on Earth (Cameron et al., 2019).
Our goal was to visualize a clear foundation for future compensation planning initiatives and policies for wetland creation. Careful planning through the use of GIS technology can visualize spatial patterns to help design self-sustaining wetlands which minimizes future costs for maintenance (Sivakumar & Ghosh, 2016). The next step in our project would be establishing a team with local experts and stakeholders to review our analysis. The coordination of project funds permits approval, and requirements would come thereafter. The implementation itself would consume a bulk of the project duration, taking careful consideration of all aspects, both biotic and abiotic, of the natural ecosystem. Finally, maintenance and monitoring would aim to look after any concerns when everything has been put in place and identify areas for improvement to inform further wetland creation and/or expansion (“Wetland Ways”, 2009).