Index of Vegetative Quality: A New Tool for Prioritizing Sites for Watershed Restoration.

 

Strieby, Sandra.

 

Urbanization diminishes water resource quality (WRQ) by generating pollutants and damaging habitat. The Strategies for Restoration of Coastal Aquatic Ecosystems project is a study aimed at finding ways of reducing the impact of land development on WRQ.

The project involves using computer modeling to analyze various components of the natural and regulatory environments in the Liberty Bay watershed on Washington state's Kitsap Peninsula. Information generated by the models will be used to make decisions about development patterns and landscape restoration in an effort to accommodate development while improving WRQ and preventing further environmental degradation.

This study presents the scholarly and conceptual underpinnings of a model of vegetative cover, in the form of an Index of Vegetative Quality (IVQ). The IVQ draws upon recent ecological research to allow analysis of functional qualities of vegetative cover that are not typically examined by landscape planners. The IVQ is intended for use as one component of the overall Strategies for Restoration of Coastal Aquatic Ecosystems modeling system. It can also be adapted for use in other bioregions.