Health Card (How to Prepare?)

AEM-505

By:-

Pulak Priti Patra

Dept. of Aquatic Environment ManagementFaculty of Fishery SciencesWest Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences

What is Ecological Health Card?What is Ecological Health Card?

• This health card is a tool for managing nutrient loads into coastal waters.

• It also states the condition of a aquatic body with respect to its water quality, productivity, nutrient availability, biodiversity and classify the water body the with suitable grade to understand its condition.

Framework for Developing Health Card

DRIVERSDRIVERS

These are the fundamental forces that affect the environment, whether societal drivers, such as energy development and demographics, or natural drivers, such as climatic and oceanographic processes.

PRESSUREPRESSURE

These are the human activities and natural processes that cause environmental stressors; human activity examples include coastal development, oil and gas exploration and spills, and commercial and recreational fishing.

• Fishing and Aquaculture• Pollution• Tourism• Sedimentation

STRESSORSSTRESSORS

• These are what the ecological system “sees”, defined as chemical, physical, or biological agents that can cause ecological effects.

• Examples include habitat alteration, changes in the salinity regime, sea-level rise, harmful algal blooms, toxic chemicals, and excess nutrients.

STATESTATE

• This is the condition of the environment, which is measured in terms of Valued Ecosystem Components (VECs), i.e., those particular ecological attributes that are important to humans and/or to the functioning of the ecosystem itself.

• Examples include fisheries populations, marine mammals, important habitats such as wetlands, sea grasses, and coral reefs, and critical or endangered species;

IMPACTSIMPACTS

This is a measure of how far the condition of the ecosystem is, in terms of the VECs, from a desired condition, such as the condition that existed before an oil spill occurred, or the desired environmental goal for ecological recovery and sustainability

• Impacts on Economy• Impacts on Society• Impacts on the Ecology

RESPONSERESPONSE

This is what society does to reduce, mitigate, or adapt to stressors; often response actions are aimed at reducing the Pressures on the environment, such as through pollution controls, regulations to improve the safety of ships or oil platforms, or land-use and water-conservation measures.

• This report card is a significant step in progressing our understanding of how human activities (or Pressures) affect the environmental condition within the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework for environmental management..

• Ensuring hydrological connectivity with freshwater and coastal processes at the basin level.

• Establishing hierarchical and multiscalar inventory of hydrological, ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional features and ecosystem services to support management planning and decision-making.

• Promoting sustainable catchment management practices to manage inflow of silt and nutrients into the wetland system.

• .

• Adopting environmental flows as a basis for water allocation for conservation and development activities.

• Promoting biodiversity conservation through habitat improvement of

endangered and indigenous species

• Supporting ecotourism development for enhancing awareness, income generation, and livelihood diversification .

• Promoting sustainable fisheries for maintaining nutritional security while ensuring maintenance of biodiversity and equitable sharing of benefits.

• Building capacity at all levels for technical and managerial skills for implementation of integrated management planning.

• Reducing poverty through sustainable resource development and utilization and livelihood diversification.

• Promoting institutional arrangements enabling integration of wetland management planning and river basin and coastal zone management.

Steps should be followed to prepare a Health card

Step 1

Create new indicators and novel Technique for effective and rigorous and

spatial analysis

Freshwater water body:-• Deep-water bottom communities• Pelagic habitats

Marine water water body:-• Coral reefs• Seagrass communities• Salt and freshwater• Marshes• Coastal forests

Step:-2

Select Indicators that conveyEcological information

WATER QUALITY WATER QUALITY

• Water clarity — a measure of how much light penetrates though the water column which plays an important role in determining Lake grasses and phytoplankton distribution and abundance.

• Dissolved oxygen — critical to the survival of aquatic life. The amount of dissolved oxygen needed before aquatic organisms are stressed, or even die, varies from species to species.

• Total chlorophyll — a measure of phytoplankton (microalgae) biomass. Elevated phytoplankton levels can reduce water clarity and decomposing phytoplankton can reduce dissolved oxygen levels.

FISHERIES FISHERIES

• Total catch —Allows Lake managers to monitor annual yield in comparison to a calculated maximum sustainable yield.

• Commercial species diversity — number of species landed each year that are commercially important for the livelihood of fishermen.

• Size — body length of landed species should be above (or between) a

prescribed length to ensure sustainability of the species.

BIODIVERSITYBIODIVERSITY

• Bird count and richness — count of the number of birds and bird species utilizing the Lake.

• Presence of any other aquatic mamals — in many lake dolphin present.

• Benthic infauna diversity —Benthic infauna are organisms living in or on

the soft bottom areas of the Lake (e.g., clams and worms) and are a key food source for many species.

• Phytoplankton diversity (microalgae) —Phytoplankton are an important component of the Lake’s food web.

Step 3

DEFINE THRESHOLD

Desired conditions are based on available guidelines, current scientific knowledge, and/or historical data and trends, and take into account the influence of a variable climate from year to year. The table in next slide outlines the desired condition developed or identified for each indicator and the source of this information.

Category Indicator Desired Condition

Source of Data

Biodiversity

Bird Count & Richness

Ratio to maximum Bird Count ever

Recorded

Data collected from earlier record or

collection from old local people

Benthic In fauna Diversity

Simpson's index of diversity

Phytoplankton Diversity

Simpson's index of diversity

Water Quality

Water Clarity < 30 NTU

Dissolve Oxygen > 5 mg/L or 60% sat

Total Chlorophyll < 5 µg/ litre

Fisheries

Total Catch % deviation above or below MSY

Commercial Fish Species

Ratio of species landed desired

Size Proportion of species landed above a

sustainable size limit

Step 4

Calculate Indicator Score and Combine into Index Grades

Calculating Ecosystem GradeCalculating Ecosystem Grade

The grades were calculated from the average of water quality, fisheries, and biodiversity indices, comprised of data collected.

A GradeA Grade

• 80–100%.

• All water quality and biological health indicators meet desired levels.

• Quality of water in these locations tends to be very good, most often leading to very good habitat conditions for fish and shellfish.

B GradeB Grade

• 60–80%.

• Most water quality and biological health indicators meet desired levels.

• Quality of water in these locations tends to be good, often leading to good habitat conditions for fish and shellfish.

C GradeC Grade

• 40–60%.

• There is a mix of good and poor levels of water quality and biological health indicators.

• Quality of water in these locations tends to be fair, leading to fair habitat conditions for fish and shellfish.

D GradeD Grade

• 20–40%.

• Some or few water quality and biological health indicators meet desired levels.

• Quality of water in these locations tends to be poor, often leading to poor habitat conditions for fish and shellfish

F GradeF Grade

• 0–20%.

• Very few or no water quality and biological health indicators meet desired levels.

• Quality of water in these locations tends to be very

poor, most often leading to very poor habitat conditions for fish and shellfish.

Step 5

Communicate Using Mass media

The communication should be done properly through mass media, digital media etc. to circulate the health status of the aquatic body and create awareness between peoples if the particular aquatic body is in poor condition.

ConclusionConclusion

Health card gives us an overall idea about the status of any aquatic body. Though to make prepare a health card of the lake, river etc is very tough task due to various limitation, the initiation has been taken by GOI.

The health card of Chilka lake has been already prepared. We hope, in future the health card should be prepared for all important lakes and wetlands and monitoring will be done accordingly.

ReferenceReference

• Chilka Lake Health Card• Great Barrier Reef Health Card• Chesapeake Bay Report Card• Gulf of Mexico Health Card

THANK YOU