Human disturbance of the Waitomo catchment, New Zealand

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 108; pp. 130 - 140
• Main Authors: van Beynen, Philip E., Bialkowska-Jelinska, Elzbieta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15.10.2012; Elsevier; Academic Press Ltd
• Subjects: Agriculture; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; atmosphere; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Boundaries; Caves; Conservation of Natural Resources - legislation & jurisprudence; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Deforestation; Environmental index; Environmental indicators; Environmental management; experts; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Groundwater; Human disturbance; Human influences; Humans; hydrology; Karst; karsts; Landscape; landscapes; managers; Natural resource management; New Zealand; Rural areas; Rural landscape; Topography; urban areas; Water Pollution; water quality; Water Supply; Watersheds; waterways; New Zealand; Oceania; Environmental index; Rural landscape; Karst; Human disturbance; Rural environment; Watershed; Environmental management; Anthropogenic factor
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.04.038

The karst disturbance index (KDI) consists of 31 environmental indicators categorized within the five broad categories of geomorphology, hydrology, atmosphere, biota, and culture. This article discusses the application of the KDI to the rural karst region of Waitomo, New Zealand. Previous applications of the KDI measured disturbance to urban areas as delineated by geo-political boundaries while this study used a physical boundary of a small karst catchment. Such an approach ensures greater environmental specificity of measured disturbance levels compared to those determined according to arbitrary, politically defined areas. The study included a comparison of a local resource manager and a visiting karst expert's determinations of disturbance levels for the catchment. Overall, the Waitomo catchment was found to be moderately disturbed. The only significant, direct disturbances were deforestation and erosion; however, these lead to the indirect disturbance of cave biota, water quality and accelerated sedimentation of the catchment's waterways. We have a high degree of confidence in the validity of these results due to the ability to assess all of the applicable indicators in the index, and the consistency of scoring by both individuals who applied the index. The benefit of applying the KDI at the catchment level is the greater accuracy measuring disturbance as opposed to applying the index within geo-political boundaries that incorporate both karst and non-karst terrains. With disturbance data for a highly specific area, the Waitomo resource managers have the improved ability to effectively identify, target, remediate, and manage human disturbance of the karst landscape. ► First application to compare results of different experts which differed by only 5 percent. ► This study is the smallest scale ever attempted, that of a watershed catchment. ► This scale allows managers to more effectively to mitigate environmental problems. ► The catchment scale minimized inclusion of non-karst areas when applying the KDI.