Infrastructure impacts
What are the ecological consequences of a major coastal or marine infrastructure project on ecosystem structure, function, and services, and can these impacts be mitigated through ecosystem-based management strategies?
Using EwE to model aspects of this overarching question can provide insights into the complex and interconnected impacts of major infrastructure projects on marine ecosystems. These analyses may help inform environmental impact assessments (EIA), help design more ecologically sensitive infrastructure, and guide the development of effective mitigation strategies.
When applying this to a case study, you could focus on a specific type of infrastructure project, such as, e.g., a large port expansion, an offshore wind farm, a coastal desalination plant, a bridge or tunnel crossing an estuary or marine strait, a tidal barrage or other large-scale tidal energy project.
The model and analysis should be tailored to the specific characteristics and potential impacts of the chosen infrastructure type, and a common approach for evaluating the impact is to run the model complex with and without the project an evaluate the relative change due to the project (with/without project ratio).
Potential policy questions
- Habitat alteration: How does the physical alteration of habitats (e.g., dredging, land reclamation) affect species composition, biodiversity, and ecosystem function?
- Trophic cascade effects: What are the potential cascading effects through the food web resulting from the disturbance or loss of key species or habitats?
- Connectivity disruption: How does the infrastructure project impact ecological connectivity?
- Sediment dynamics: How do changes in sediment transport and deposition patterns affect benthic communities and overall ecosystem productivity?
- Water quality impacts: What are the consequences of potential changes in water quality (e.g., turbidity, nutrient levels) on primary productivity and higher trophic levels?
- Noise impacts: How does increased noise during construction and operation affect marine mammals, fish, and invertebrates in terms of mortality, behavior, communication, and population dynamics?
- Invasive species introduction: Does the infrastructure project increase the risk of invasive species establishment, and what are the potential ecological consequences?
- Cumulative impacts: How do the effects of the infrastructure project interact with existing stressors such as fishing pressure, pollution, and climate change?
- Recovery potential: What is the ecosystem’s capacity to recover from the disturbance, and how long might this recovery take under different scenarios?
- Ecosystem services: How does the infrastructure project affect the provision of ecosystem services such as coastal protection, carbon sequestration, and fisheries productivity?
- Mitigation strategies: What ecosystem-based management strategies could be implemented to mitigate negative impacts and potentially enhance positive outcomes?
- Spatial variation in impacts: How do the ecological consequences vary spatially, both in the immediate vicinity of the project and in more distant, indirectly affected areas?
- Temporal dynamics: How do the impacts change over time, from the construction phase through long-term operation of the infrastructure?
- Alternative designs: How do different infrastructure design options compare in terms of their ecological impacts and potential for mitigation?
- Indicator species: Which species or functional groups are most sensitive to the impacts of the infrastructure project and could serve as ecological indicators for monitoring?
