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Wetland Treatment

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Wetland Treatment
11/15/12
Wetland Treatment
Environmental Systems
Adam Pittman
Bluefield State College
11/15/12
Wetland Treatment
Environmental Systems
Adam Pittman
Bluefield State College

Adam Pittman
Environmental Systems
Wetland Treatment

A very important aspect in civil engineering is dealing with projects that contain wetland treatment. Wetland treatment is a very touchy matter in most environmental practices across the country and must be dealt with according to law in order to preserve wildlife and natural ecosystems that do so much to benefit engineering projects as a whole and society. Wetlands have many different construction properties and techniques that must be considered creating many problems in the engineering construction process which is a reason why wetland treatment needs to be dealt with the proper way by all parties. Essentially, wetland treatment is a top focus and concern because of its ecological factors and its construction hindrance. Wetlands are found all across the world on every continent except Antarctica from the snowy tundra to the hot tropics. Because of the Clean Water Act, the term wetland means “those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas.” (Clean Water Act) Wetlands are a dangerous and all projects built on or near one should be cautious of potential failure due to flooding. A good question to ask is why wetlands are valuable if they cause so much potential harm in the building world? The answer is because they are important to the ecosystem and animals that inhabit that ecosystem such as fish, birds, and other wildlife. The animals in the ecosystem are important to our environment because they provide different positive impacts on the surrounding land.



Cited: Ehrenfeld, J.G. (2000). Evaluation of wetlands within an urban context. Urban Ecosystems, 4, 69–85. Sipple, W.S. (1971). The past and present flora and vegetation of the Hackensack Meadows. Bartonia, 41, 4–56. Roman, C.T., Niering, W.A. & Warren, R.S. (1984). Salt marsh vegetation change in response to tidal restriction. Environmental Management, 8, 141–150. New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. (2004). Master Plan. Retrieved September 15, 2004, from http://www.meadowlands.state.nj.us/land_use/Publications/Master_Plan.cfm Weinstein, M.P Zedler, J.B. (Ed.). (2001). Handbook for restoring tidal wetlands. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Hicks, P.L. & Hartman, J.M. (2004). Can natural colonization successfully restore salt marsh habitat? A three-year assessment. Ecological Restoration, 22, 141–143. Feltes, R. & Hartman, J.M. (2002). Progress on monitoring tidal restoration projects in the Hackensack Meadowlands district for the period January 1, 2002, to June 30, 2002. Report Number 7. Lyndhurst, NJ: New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. Grothues, T.M. & Able, K.W. (2003). Discerning vegetation and environmental correlates with subtidal marsh fish assemblage dynamics during Phragmites eradication efforts: Inter-annual trend measures. Estuaries, 26 (2B), 575–587. Gray, A., Simenstad, C.A., Bottom, D.L. & Cornwell, T.J. (2002). Contrasting functional performance of juvenile salmon habitat in recovering wetlands of the Salmon River estuary, Oregon, U.S.A. Restoration Ecology, 10, 514–526. Talley, T. & Levin, L.A. (1999). Macrofaunal succession and community structure in Salicornia marshes of southern California. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 49, 713–741. Dodson, S.A. & Lillie, R.A. (2001). Zooplankton communities of restored depressional wetlands in Wisconsin, U.S.A. Wetlands, 21, 292–300. Holl, K.D., Crone, E.E. & Schultz, C.B. (2003). Landscape restoration: Moving from generalities to methodologies. Bioscience, 53, 491–502.

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