PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 7: Restoration, Resource Management, and Conservation.
Monday, August 4 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
An interdisciplinary "four-tier" modeling methodology for resource management: An example from the St. Jones River watershed, Delaware.
Reiter, Michael*,1, Parsons, George2, 1 Delaware State University, Dover, DE2 University of Delaware, Newark, DE
ABSTRACT- An integrated, interdisciplinary conceptual model was developed for the St. Jones River watershed, Delaware for use as a management and research tool. The model utilizes the "two-tier" approach of the Environmental Cooperative Science Center methodology (drivers-stressors, stressors-valued ecosystem components) based upon the VEC modeling structure of Harwell and Gentile, and expands upon it to include a third (valued ecosystem components-services) and fourth (services-drivers) tier. The four-tier model has the potential to more clearly link human activities not only to significant ecological impacts within a habitat, but to possible social and economic impacts on human services including feedbacks upon the initiating drivers. The four-tier model retains the "ranked matrix" assembly methodology utilized for the two-tier model, but introduces steps in later tiers to limit the potential number of links to a manageable level. The present four-tier model for the St. Jones River watershed in central Delaware suggests that climate, development, and agriculture are likely to be the most important drivers in the watershed, that aquatic habitats are likely to receive significant amounts of stress, and that development, habitat restoration/mitigation, and land-use regulation are drivers with a high potential to be affected by feedbacks from activities in the watershed.
Key words: conceptual modeling, resource management, interdisciplinary