A Comparison of Four Wetlands Assessment Procedures Relevant to the Alluvial Valleys of East Texas

<p>Currently several methods are used by public and private entities to assess wetland functional condition in support of the Section 404 Clean Water Act program. Four of these are: <em>Forested Wetlands in Alluvial Valleys of the Coastal Plain of the Southeastern United States</em> (SEHGM); <em>A Regional Guidebook for Applying the Hydrogeomorphic Approach to the Functional Assessment of Forested Wetlands in Alluvial Valleys of East Texas</em> (ETXHGM); <em>Texas Rapid Assessment Method</em> (TXRAM); and the <em>Wildlife Habitat Appraisal Procedure </em>(WHAP). Little previous research compares wetland functional assessment methods. Results of the SEHGM, ETXHGM, TXRAM, and WHAP methods were compared on five East Texas alluvial valley sites within the Pineywoods ecoregion, or bottomland hardwoods. </p> <p>Statistical analyses determined that the assessments did not result in similar scores. Statistical groupings placed ETXHGM and SEHGM in the same group, followed by TXRAM and WHAP individually. ETXHGM, SEHGM, and TXRAM all resulted in very high mean scores. WHAP was significantly lower overall. Since ETXHGM, SEHGM, and TXRAM resulted in such similar scores, it could be more time efficient to choose the method with the best time efficiency and largest geographic domain, such as the SEHGM. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science - Environmental Sciences

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Environmental Science

Year dc:date.available

2018

Author dc:creator

• Camp, Amy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Hans Williams
• Dr. Kenneth Farrish
• Dr. Yanli Zhang

• wetlands
• functional assessment
• east texas
• hydrogeomorphic
• comparison
• Environmental Monitoring
• Natural Resources and Conservation
• Other Environmental Sciences

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/170

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1184