Ecological land reuse at contaminated sites - planning at the landscape scale

Stakeholders are increasingly recognizing the value of incorporating ecological enhancements as a component of remediating and restoring contaminated sites.  Ecological enhancements can include the use of cost-effective natural or green remediation technologies (e.g., phytoremediation, enhanced bioremediation) in place or alongside of traditional technologies.  They can also involve the creation or restoration of ecological habitat.  Habitat creation or restoration can be an effective means of meeting regulatory objectives under Superfund, the National Contingency Plan, and the Oil Pollution Act to protect human health and the environment or to manage environmental liabilities under a Natural Resource Damage Assessment.  Even when a habitat project meets established site-specific ecological, economic, regulatory, or aesthetic goals, it is important for the ecological value of a project to be considered in the context of the larger landscape.  By planning habitat projects in view of the broader landscape, ecological value can be enhanced by ensuring the project site’s connectivity with other neighboring habitat areas.  Using frameworks from the fields of conservation biology and metapopulation theory, we show how landscape connectivity models can be used to guide the planning of habitat projects at contaminated sites.  Use of such approaches early in the planning process can ensure that habitat projects simultaneously meet stakeholder needs while maximizing ecological value at the landscape scale.