Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
food, fi bre, fuel, fresh water and timber; based on
renewed and augmented stocks of what ecological
economists call
natural capital
(Aronson
et al
.
2007a; Chapter 22). Successfully restoring, or reinte-
grating, landscapes to benefi t society by building
natural capital is also important in terms of the devel-
opment of the dignity and self-esteem of present and
future generations (Blignaut
et al
. 2007 ). Restoring
natural capital also needs to address how costs and
benefi ts are partitioned within society (Farley & Brown
Gaddis 2007). Here we have described a simple plan-
ning procedure and a set of low-cost tools (Landscape
Function Analysis indicators) that can be readily
implemented in a restoration project. This is ideal for
many local landscape restoration projects because it
does not necessarily need big support from government
or other agencies and funding organizations.
New principles in landscape and restoration ecology,
such as those articulated by Turner
et al
. (2001) and
Clewell and Aronson (2007), and stepwise procedures,
such as those described in this chapter and by Tongway
and Ludwig (2011), now permit rapid but effi cient eco-
logical analyses of important questions on how to
effectively restore or rehabilitate and monitor land-
scape processes and functions. On refl ection, we are
reminded of a quotation attributed to J.W. Tukey, the
great statistician: 'Far better an approximate answer to
the right question, which is often vague, than the exact
answer to the wrong question, which can always be
made precise ' (1962, 13).
