Floristic Quality Assessment

Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) is a tool used in the United States to assess an area's ecological integrity based on its plant species composition.[1] Floristic Quality Assessment was originally developed in order to assess the likelihood that impacts to an area "would be irreversible or irretrievable...to make standard comparisons among various open land areas, to set conservation priorities, and to monitor site management or restoration efforts."[2] The concept was developed by Gerould Wilhelm in the 1970s in a report on the natural lands of Kane County, Illinois.[3] In 1979 Wilhelm and Floyd Swink codified this "scoring system" [4] for the 22-county Chicago Region.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference fqa1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference swink1994 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference wilhelm1977 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Young, Dick (1994). Kane County Wild Plants And Natural Areas, 2nd edition. Kane County Forest Preserve District. p. 4. OCLC 31441931.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference swink1979 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).