Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
by your project. The involvement of regulatory agency staff who will issue permits for your project
work in the planning process can smooth the way for a more efficient permitting process.
3.
Fully investigate the current and historic conditions on your project site and in the
surrounding area, and identify the trends that will affect your site in the future.
Site analysis is an iterative process, done as a series of investigations of your site. Initial data provide
a basis for the proposed goals for your project. Continued investigations provide refined data that
further clarify project goals and help to set project objectives. Understanding past, present, and
future influences in the watershed or region in which your site is located will help you design a
project that can adjust to surrounding influences.
4.
Clearly express your project goals and objectives in writing after stakeholders have
reached a consensus on their content.
Goals and objectives help you define your project in terms of desired outcomes and form a basis
for common stakeholder expectations. Formal stakeholder agreement and informal stakeholder
buy-in to project goals, objectives, and project requirements prevent misunderstandings as your
project is implemented, cared for, monitored, and evaluated. This process provides the foundation
on which all subsequent decisions are based. Sign off from regulatory agencies at this stage can
reduce the likelihood of requirement changes at the time of permit issuance, especially if agency
personnel change in the interim.
5.
Identify and eliminate the causes of disturbances that have impaired the ecosystem(s) on
your project site.
Unless you eliminate, or at least minimize, the perturbations that led to the degradation of your
site, your restored ecosystem will be subject to the same adverse influences. In cases where the
stressors affecting your site are coming from outside your project boundary, you may have to ad-
dress issues in the region from your project location. The use of a conceptual analytic tool known
as SWOT-C is an effective means to conduct an analysis of your site. This analysis allows you to
incorporate the site conditions and evaluate them against your initial goals, possibly modifying
the goals in response to this information. This tool can also prompt you to consider new goals by
discovering opportunities previously not expressed.
6.
Create a design for your project that takes into account not only the project goals and
objectives but also the site conditions, adjacent environments, the position of your site in
the landscape, and any anticipated effects of climate change.
Translating your project goals and objectives into a design for your project site is no simple matter.
Although your reference model will serve as a guide for what you want to achieve, you will need
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