A phyto-guide to species selection for optimized South African green infrastructure

IF 1 4区 环境科学与生态学 Q4 WATER RESOURCES
DM Jacklin, IC Brink, SM Jacobs
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Abstract

In South Africa, rapid environmental degeneration caused by anthropogenic pollution poses a major ecological engineering problem, demanding proper resource mitigation strategies. For the treatment of polluted water and degraded soil systems, green infrastructure (GI) offers an effective, sustainable and affordable nature-based alternative to grey infrastructure. An additive benefit within GI, plant species provide enormous potential to treatment; however, species vary substantially in their pollutant removal and hydrologic performance. South African civil engineers tasked with designing GI often lack expertise and knowledge of plant behaviour and ecosystem dynamics. Therefore, this paper proposes a decision framework to facilitate selection for designing local GI in the form of a phyto-guide, based on existing recommendations and knowledge of removal processes and plant behaviour. Interdisciplinarity at the core of the phyto-guide relies on continuous specialist collaboration with each selection criteria, whilst efficiency and sustainability are considered equally important contributors to successful GI functioning. The spread of invasive alien plants, whether accidental or deliberate, negatively impacts an ecosystem’s capacity to deliver goods and services. Thus, the desire to optimize GI by incorporating effective phytoremediators cannot be prioritised over conservation concerns. In addition, this paper seeks to advance the GI limitation of relying solely on previously identified phytoremediators, by including evaluation criteria of beneficial plant traits as well as plant distribution, behaviour and diversity into the decision-making process for optimized GI. It is recommended that future research engages in discovering less invasive, naturally occurring local species as potential phytoremediators, inspired by South Africa’s rich biodiversity and endemism, as well as conveying the importance of consultation with engineers and ecologists for optimized GI.
南非绿色基础设施优化的植物物种选择指南
在南非,人为污染造成的环境迅速退化是一个重大的生态工程问题,需要适当的资源缓解战略。对于污水和退化土壤系统的处理,绿色基础设施(GI)提供了一种有效、可持续和负担得起的基于自然的灰色基础设施替代方案。在GI中,植物物种提供了巨大的治疗潜力,这是一个附加效益;然而,物种在去除污染物和水文性能方面差异很大。负责设计地理标志的南非土木工程师往往缺乏植物行为和生态系统动力学方面的专业知识和知识。因此,本文提出了一个决策框架,以植物指南的形式,基于现有的建议和对去除过程和植物行为的了解,促进局部地理标志设计的选择。植物指南的核心是跨学科,它依赖于与每个选择标准的持续专家合作,而效率和可持续性被认为是成功的GI功能的重要贡献者。外来入侵植物的传播,无论是偶然的还是故意的,都会对生态系统提供产品和服务的能力产生负面影响。因此,通过纳入有效的植物修复剂来优化地理标志的愿望不能优先于保护问题。此外,本文试图通过将有益植物性状的评价标准以及植物分布、行为和多样性纳入优化地理标志的决策过程,来提高地理标志仅依赖于先前确定的植物修复剂的局限性。受南非丰富的生物多样性和特有性的启发,未来的研究应致力于发现侵入性较小、自然存在的当地物种,作为潜在的植物修复剂,并传达与工程师和生态学家协商优化地理标志的重要性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Water SA
Water SA 环境科学-水资源
CiteScore
2.80
自引率
6.70%
发文量
46
审稿时长
18-36 weeks
期刊介绍: WaterSA publishes refereed, original work in all branches of water science, technology and engineering. This includes water resources development; the hydrological cycle; surface hydrology; geohydrology and hydrometeorology; limnology; salinisation; treatment and management of municipal and industrial water and wastewater; treatment and disposal of sewage sludge; environmental pollution control; water quality and treatment; aquaculture in terms of its impact on the water resource; agricultural water science; etc. Water SA is the WRC’s accredited scientific journal which contains original research articles and review articles on all aspects of water science, technology, engineering and policy. Water SA has been in publication since 1975 and includes articles from both local and international authors. The journal is issued quarterly (4 editions per year).
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