Methods for a composite ecological suitability measure to inform cumulative restoration assessments in Gulf of Mexico estuaries.

Ecosystem management requires a systematic, holistic approach that considers ecological and social outcomes. Effective restoration practices promote a balance of ecological and social goals by addressing ecological integrity, efficiently maximizing benefits while minimizing investment, and encompassing collaborative stakeholder engagement. Socio-ecological assessments can inform adaptive management and be utilized to prioritize restoration activities and monitor restoration effectiveness.

A conceptual approach to characterizing ecological suitability: Informing socio-ecological measures for restoration effectiveness.

A combination of ecological and socio-economic outcome indicators is essential for understanding and assessing the effectiveness of the remediation and restoration of degraded ecosystems and revitalizing communities that could benefit from these ecosystem management activities. In this paper, we propose and develop a conceptual approach to characterize ecological suitability that incorporates ecological attributes that support ecosystem structural diversity and functionality, stakeholder values and perceptions, and the benefits derived from ecosystem goods and services. A structured literature review was used to identify existing restoration frameworks and indicators to inform the conceptual foundation for characterizing ecological suitability.

Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island.

Across the United States, development, gentrification, and water quality degradation have altered our access to the coasts, redistributing the benefits from those spaces. Building on prior coastal and green space access research, we examined different populations' relative travel distances to all public coastal access and to public marine swimming beaches across the state of Rhode Island, by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomics. Next, we assessed relative travel distances to high quality public coastal amenities, i.