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Setting Targets for Wetland Restoration to Mitigate Climate Change Effects on Watershed Hydrology

Environmental Management volume 71, pages 365–378 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

How much wetland we should protect or restore is not a simple question, such that conservation targets are often set according to political agendas, then standardized globally. However, given their key regulating hydrological functions, wetlands represent nature-based solutions to the anticipated, exacerbating effect of climate change on drought and flood events, which will vary at the regional scale. Here, we propose a science-based approach to establishing regional wetland restoration targets centered on their hydrological functions, using a case study on several sub-watersheds of a northern temperate basin in south-eastern Canada. We posit that restoration targets should minimally mitigate the negative effects of climate change on watershed hydrology, namely peak and low flows. We used a semi-distributed hydrological model, HYDROTEL, to perform a hydroclimatic assessment, including 47 climate projections over the 1979–2099 period, to test the effect of wetland restoration scenarios on peak and low flows. The results showed that hydrological responses to climate change varied among sub-watersheds (even at the scale of a relatively small region), and that, to mitigate these changes, increases in wetland coverage should be between 20% and up to 150%. At low restoration levels, increasing wetland coverage was more effective in attenuating floods than alleviating droughts. This study indicates that a no-net-loss policy is insufficient to maintain current hydrological cycles in the face of climate change; rather, a ‘net gain’ in wetland cover is needed.

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Funding

This research was supported by the MITACS Accelerate program, the Ouranos consortium (project 554030) via the Quebec government 2013–2020 action plan on climate change, the watershed organization of the study region (OBV de la Capitale), and Quebec city. MITACS grants were attributed to J-OG and MB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de phytologie, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada

    Jean-Olivier Goyette & Monique Poulin

  2. Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Jean-Olivier Goyette & Stéphanie Pellerin

  3. Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Jean-Olivier Goyette, Stéphanie Pellerin & Monique Poulin

  4. Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) - Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Quebec, QC, Canada

    Stéphane Savary, Marianne Blanchette & Alain N. Rousseau

Authors
  1. Jean-Olivier Goyette
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  2. Stéphane Savary
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  3. Marianne Blanchette
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  4. Alain N. Rousseau
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  5. Stéphanie Pellerin
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Contributions

J-OG, MP and SS developed the idea and the conceptual framework of the study. J-OG and SS designed the methodology. SS and MB performed simulations and J-OG analyzed the data. J-OG led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication. Our research was discussed with local stakeholders to seek feedback on the questions to be addressed and the approach to be considered.

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Correspondence to Jean-Olivier Goyette.

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Goyette, JO., Savary, S., Blanchette, M. et al. Setting Targets for Wetland Restoration to Mitigate Climate Change Effects on Watershed Hydrology. Environmental Management 71, 365–378 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01763-z

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Keywords

  • Conservation targets
  • Wetlands
  • Flood and drought
  • Climate change
  • Ecosystem services
  • Landscape management