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Dryad

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

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Oct 08, 2025 version files 19.11 KB

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Abstract

Environmental monitoring continues to be necessary along with a growing human population and increased anthropocentric land use changes.  In instances where oil and gas development and subsequent ecological reclamation practices occur, constraints associated with manpower and short growing seasons may make it impossible to conduct full census surveys on every location.  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. 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.