ECOLOGICAL SERVICES

Identification, delineation and mapping of areas of actual ecological stress

Forensic ecology to identify root causes of environmental impact

Delineation of areas requiring remediation

Demonstration of long-term environmental improvements arising from remediation and treatment

Emergency Ecological Response Procedure (EERP) development

Habitat Surveys (Phase I & II)

Acoustic Waveform Analyses (Bat surveys)

Ecological Audit Reporting .

Ecological Assessment and Management

Ecological asssessment measures the impacts of contaminants arising from sites and allows you to make reliable and sustainable decisions based on the facts.

A number of regulatory regimes require assessment of the impact of historical, ongoing or accidental discharges on nearby ecosystems and their organisms. These discharges may be accidental ongoing operational releases or may arise from historical contamination present on site. Many ecological risk assessment involves comparing the measured or estimated concentrations of each chemical with a corresponsing estimate of chemical toxicity to the ecosystem or individual species. This approach does not however reflect the complexity of ecosystems and may significantly mininterpret the risk posed by the site, thereby leading to inappropriate remediation with the associated cost impacts.

Our Approach

SSEM, in collaboration with its Ecological Consultancy partner Physalia, offers a direct ecological assessment service that correlates the biological diversity and population abundance of an ecosystem with the contamination arising from a site. This involves monitoring sitea at varying levels of biological organisation and evaluating these data statistically alongside physical and chemical data to ascertain the true impact of the site.

The assessment process integrates into current Environment Agency and SEPA guidance and is fully scalable to account for differing site sizes, local settings and ecosystem sensitivities. It offers a robust and defensible basis for determining the impact of historic land contamination or permitted discharges from a site; the potential associated liabilities and the cost-benefit of any remedial action. It can also be used to demonstrate long term improvements resulting from remedial works.

Find out more about our Ecological Consultancy Partner