Long-term monitoring strategies for ecological reclamation programmes using spatially balanced rotating panel designs

Michael Finn Curran, Blair L Robertson, Jasmine Allison, Bobby Saleh, Timothy J Robinson, Steven Bower

1. Environmental monitoring programmes associated with ecological reclamation are critical to various stakeholder groups and important for regulatory compliance, to assess site performance, and to inform decision management. As logistical constraints are common, strategies for sampling multiple locations or large areas over time are likely to improve monitoring programmes. Rotating panel designs can be used to conduct statistically valid field sampling across spatial and temporal schedules, resulting in significant time- and cost-savings without sacrificing quality of monitoring data. Spatially balanced sampling designs have also been useful for monitoring natural resources as they ensure good coverage over an area of interest. 2. We propose using a spatially balanced rotating panel sampling design which utilizes neighbourhoods created by spatial and auxiliary information. As it is common for reclamation efforts across space to be influenced by environmental factors, we assume nearby locations which are treated with the same inputs will be more similar to each other than far away areas. We use a one-point-per-cluster sampling design to ensure good spatial coverage of the large area. 3. This approach is helpful because it guarantees local coverage during each sampling phase, achieves equal inclusion probabilities, and has excellent spatial spread. We give examples from the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field in Sublette County, Wyoming, USA. Our examples include a natural gas well pad reclamation programme consisting of 303 locations as well as a ~21 km pipeline right-of-way system undergoing reclamation. 4. As ecological reclamation will be continuously relied upon to mitigate land surface disturbance and combat environmental threats such as biodiversity loss and climate change, sound long-term monitoring programmes to document outcomes are critical.