Threatened species impact assessments: survey effort requirements based on criteria for cumulative impacts

Abstract

Aim: Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) often involve establishing whether a species of concern is present at the site considered for development. When surveys falsely conclude that sites are unoccupied, species prevalence in the region is cumulatively reduced. We argue that setting an acceptable level of induced decline in species occurrence provides a defensible strategy to determine minimum survey effort requirements. We investigate methods for setting such requirements. Location: Eastern Australia, although we demonstrate methods applicable wherever species detection data are available to inform survey design. Methods: We use probability theory to investigate required survey effort ..