Hello Dr. Pranita,

For the assessment of the qualitative & quantitative health index of any Ramsar site, a holistic study comprising of physico-chemical & biological parameters are essential, which you have already mentioned that you are studying. 

But since your goal is to develop a health index for these wetlands, I suggest that you should also conduct some study regarding the extent of anthropogenic influences on the concerned wetlands and how human interactions are affecting them. For instance, if your study-wetlands are serving as a waste-water/sewerage treatment system too (like the East Calcutta Wetlands, West Bengal ....which is utilized to treat a significant portion of the city sewerage), then it would be interesting to study the microbial (Coliform MPN, etc.) load influxes into the wetlands. Biodiversity indexing (macrophyte/ animal/ microbial) might also be added to extend and improve your study.

Have you considered including an assay of scientific opinion? Create and build a list of relevant experts, initially by asking key informants and then ask for their recommendations on who might have useful views. Eventually the same names will keep re-appearing and you can pare down the list. You can then ask for crude assessments of parameters, including indicators of functional ecology (such as biodiversity and productivity), as well as the ones you are thinking about already Even a scale as simple as: good, moderate, and poor, can provide you with a qualitative assessment on a multi-point scale by scoring several criteria, and you can rank or weight the criteria to improve your system. This method cannot be used in the absence of any foundation of knowledge about a particular wetland, but can be used for individual wetlands that have been studied, or for classes of wetlands in a region.

@Pranita, ALL,

I draw your attention to the attached question (A fruitful discussion). 

It seems that the following concepts are closely linked and Interconnected in different sectors.

Healthy river, Healthy wetland, Healthy watershed, Healthy ecosystem, Healhy wildlife, and finally

HEALTHY HUMAN.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_signs_of_watershed_health

Hello Pranita,

Although i haven't used it myself, I recently worked in a project where an "ECELS" index was used, which to my understanding, has a quite qualitative basis . It stands for "Estat de Conservació d’Ecosistemes Lenítics Soms" or something like "Index of the state of conservation of shallow lentic ecosystems" You can find the pdf here: http://aca-web.gencat.cat/aca/documents/ca/directiva_marc/zones_humides.pdf

I  have the student's thesis (in Spanish) where she applied it. We are also working in an article in English. Hope this can point you in the right direction.

Dear Anindita, Martin, Raoof and Karim,

Thank you so much for your responses. The study will be a multilateral where the anthropogenic influence on the wetland and vice versa in terms of monetary and non monetary benefits will also be studied. If I am successful in developing the index and applying it 3 or more wetlands, the index will be used to compute the value of wetlands on monetary terms.  A detailed CBA involving the local communities will also be a part of the study. Please do let me know if I am on the right lines of thinking.

Thank you again for the responses. They will be very helpful for my future course of action.

Regards,

The question started as determining a set of qualitative parameters to assess the health of a wetland.  The thread of answers has concluded as a need to determine the monetary/non-monetary benefits of a wetland, in essence the valuation on the ecological services provided by a wetland.  The difference between the beginning question and the ending of the thread is a considerable leap of faith from qualitative parameters (that may or may not be quantitatively measured) to quantitative results.  

Something to consider in assessing the current health of any aquatic system, but especially wetlands, are historic modifications that pre-date current land uses or practices inthe area.  The current conditions can be constrained or controlled by historic alterations that occurred to the wetland or surrounding areas that may have occurred centuries ago and with little evidence of the occurren present today.  I have been finding that many of the assumptions made today concerning aquatic health, reference standards, biological communities and the current state of resource conditions are effected by or influenced by land practices that occurred 100-200 years ago.  However, little attention is paid to historic uses in the literature and assumption that disturbance is primarily tied to current land use conditions.  These past actions may limit/alter the biological potentials, create different plant associations establishing new community types, interfere with bio-geochemical processes, etc.

 I recommend you to read my article "Thermodynamics of WithinWater Processes in Freshwater Ecosystems under Anthropogenic Impact" .ISSN 00978078, Water Resources, 2011, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 494–501. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2011.

Original Russian Text © A.M. Nikanorov, M.M. Trofimchuk, 2011, published in Vodnye Resursy, 2011, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 454–463.

If you are interested I will send you the article to your own e-mail

Dear Mikhail,

Thank you so much. I could only get the abstract of the publication. I would indeed be great if you could send me the entire text. My email id is [email protected].

Thank you,

Regards