Challenges in Using Habitat Equivalency Analysis for Scaling Compensatory Restoration

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 791-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Dunford ◽  
Poh Boon Ung ◽  
Jeremy A. Cook ◽  
Gary S. Mauseth
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ecological Services ◽  
Ecological Service ◽  
Habitat Equivalency Analysis ◽  
Compensatory Habitat ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Compensatory Restoration

ABSTRACT Some oil spills cause losses of ecological services in coastal wetlands, other shoreline environments, intertidal ecosystems, and upland environments. In the United States, habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) is being used frequently in natural resource damage assessments for such oil spills to determine the scale of compensatory-restoration projects needed to offset the ecological service losses. The cost of the scaled compensatory-restoration project(s) that offset the ecological service losses is the measure of natural resource damages for the lost ecological services. Our paper describes the HEA process and provides an example of its application. Then we examine several challenges that arise in some HEA applications, including the role of leasing versus purchasing compensatory habitat, increasing values of compensatory habitat over time due to decreasing availability, accounting for service gains from compensatory habitat in the distant future when the present value of those services is essentially zero, and addressing uncertainties in estimating HEA inputs (such as the magnitude of annual service losses and gains). The final section of our paper provides our conclusions with respect to these challenges.

NET ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS ANALYSIS TO EVALUATE MITIGATION ALTERNATIVES FOR A PIPELINE SITING

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (2) ◽  
pp. 983-986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Kealy ◽  
Mark L. Rockel ◽  
Joseph P. Nicolette
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Forested Wetland ◽  
Environmental Benefit ◽  
Habitat Equivalency Analysis ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
Compensatory Restoration

ABSTRACT A net environmental benefits analysis (NEBA) approach offers a powerful set of tools for rigorously evaluating and comparing the natural resource benefits of alternative mitigation, restoration, enhancement, and preservation actions for compensating for natural resource damages, site remediation and pipeline-siting projects, for example. Combining the results of the NEBA with an assessment of the costs of the alternative measures shows which alternative(s) achieve a net environmental benefit at least cost. NEBA uses environmental or monetary metrics to measure the change in the value of ecological services from the site under alternative actions compared to the baseline condition. This presentation describes a NEBA application to a pipeline-siting project. The approach is equivalent to evaluating compensatory restoration as part of a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90). For example, under NRDA, a habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) model almost always is used in a two-sided NEBA, which sums the negative environmental benefits—interim losses—that result from the oil spill injury on the debit side and compares to the sum of the positive environmental benefits due to the compensatory restoration actions on the credit side. Most reports prepared as part of NRDAs are confidential. However, the NEBA used in the present pipeline-siting example is equivalent to how it has been applied in NRDA applications including two oil spills involving pipelines, the Colonial Pipeline Sugarland Run NRDA and the Colonial/Texaco Pipeline San Jacinto River Oil Spill. The present pipeline-siting example uses NEBA to determine the quantity of quality-adjusted acres of forested wetland that are needed to offset a loss in forested wetland acreage because of the construction and operation of the proposed pipeline.

scholarly journals Restoration Scaling Approaches to Addressing Ecological Injury: The Habitat-Based Resource Equivalency Method

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Baker ◽  
Adam Domanski ◽  
Terill Hollweg ◽  
Jason Murray ◽  
Diana Lane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
Habitat Equivalency Analysis ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
As Species ◽  
Ecological Habitat ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Species Specific

AbstractNatural resource trustee agencies must determine how much, and what type of environmental restoration will compensate for injuries to natural resources that result from releases of hazardous substances or oil spills. To fulfill this need, trustees, and other natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) practitioners have relied on a variety of approaches, including habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) and resource equivalency analysis (REA). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Habitat-Based Resource Equivalency Method (HaBREM), which integrates REA’s reproducible injury metrics and population modeling with HEA’s comprehensive habitat approach to restoration. HaBREM is intended to evaluate injury and restoration using organisms that use the habitat to represent ecological habitat functions. This paper seeks to expand and refine the use of organism-based metrics (biomass-based REA), providing an opportunity to integrate sublethal injuries to multiple species, as well as the potential to include error rates for injury and restoration parameters. Applied by NRDA practitioners in the appropriate context, this methodology can establish the relationship between benefits of compensatory restoration projects and injuries to plant or animal species within an affected habitat. HaBREM may be most effective where there are appropriate data supporting the linkage between habitat and species gains (particularly regionally specific habitat information), as well as species-specific monitoring data and predictions on the growth, density, productivity (i.e., rate of generation of biomass or individuals), and age distributions of indicator species.

Expanded Function Orthodontic Auxiliaries; a Proposal for their Introduction in the UK

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. D. O'Brien ◽  
W. C. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Orthodontic Treatment ◽  
The United States ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Treatment Provision ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Cost

The role of dental and orthodontic auxiliaries in Europe and the United States is reviewed, and the advantages of their employment in the United Kingdom are discussed in terms of increasing the cost-effectiveness of orthodontic treatment provision. A three-stage programme for the evaluation of Orthodontic Auxiliaries in the UK is proposed.

The Cost of Certainty in Natural Resource Damage Assessment Under the Oil Pollution Act of 19901

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Robert Greene
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Hedonic Price ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hedonic Price Models ◽  
Habitat Equivalency Analysis ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
Scaling Methods ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACT Pursuant to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), natural resource trustees are empowered to seek recovery for damages to natural resources caused by discharges of oil and/or certain threats of discharges of oil. To determine the proper amount of damages, trustees undertake the process of “scaling,” which is an attempt to calculate the size of restoration actions that would be required to expedite recovery of injured natural resources to baseline and compensate the public for interim lost resources and services. Trustees utilize various scaling methods, including service-to-service methods, such as habitat equivalency analysis, and value-to-value methods, such as hedonic price models and contingent valuation. Regardless of the method chosen, however, the scaling is directly dependent on the level of injury caused by a spill. Disputes between trustees and those parties designated as responsible for the spill (responsible parties or RPs) often occur in determining the level of injury. In many cases, as a result of either these disputes or the trustees' desire to determine the precise level of injury, trustees undertake costly and time-consuming injury studies. These studies oftentimes are inefficient because the resulting gains in certainty often are achieved through disproportionately expensive studies relative to the resulting gains in restoration. In certain instances, attempts to achieve greater certainty can destroy an otherwise efficient and cooperative restoration effort and run contrary to the OPA 90 regulations. Such attempts also can lead to costly litigation for both the public and the RP involved. Lastly, attempts to achieve greater certainty during injury assessment can unnecessarily increase the scale of compensatory restoration because of delays in implementing restoration actions. Both trustees and RPs must recognize those instances in which achieving greater certainty leads to increased costs to both the public and the RP. In such situations, stipulating to certain injury assumptions can lead to overall net gains for both the public and the RP. These stipulations can be used to induce RPs to increase other aspects of the restoration, thereby increasing overall gains for the public at less cost to the RP.

The Promise of All Things E? Expectations and Challenges of Emergent Electronic Government

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Seifert ◽  
R. Eric Petersen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electronic Government ◽  
Government Information ◽  
The Cost

AbstractThe ambiguous nature of electronic government (e-government) has resulted in hype and confusion, with little systematic consideration of the expectations and limitations of taking government online. This paper seeks to examine the role of e-government in the United States as an evolving process that manifests itself in three distinct sectors: government-to-government, government-to-business, and government-to-citizen. Using this typology as an organizing principle, we show how information technology has the potential to enhance government accessibility and citizen participation. We also show how the move toward a market-focused conceptualization of government information and service delivery raises the potential for blurring citizen and consumer roles, possibly at the cost of a robust, informed, and engaged citizenry.

scholarly journals Declared War and American Victory: A Search for Effective Commitment

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-322
Author(s):  
Slade Mendenhall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Imperfect Information ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Commitment ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Commitment Device

AbstractThis Article argues that the act of formally declaring war entails a measure of explicit commitment on the part of American political actors that raises the cost of failure and motivates politicians to see engagements through to a decisive end, fulfilling the role of a contract or institutional commitment device. It argues that undeclared conflicts, lacking such a device, are more likely to end on less decisive and less favorable terms to the United States. On this basis, it explains the emergence of a decades-long trend of protracted, unsuccessful, and indecisive military engagements by the United States as having emerged from the erosion of a constitutionally established separation of powers with respect to the initiation and administration of foreign military conflicts. In defense of this theory, it uses case studies to assess the relevance of its predictions and to weigh potential objections involving selection bias and imperfect information.

scholarly journals Habitat and Resource Equivalency Analysis: 30 Years of Lessons Learned and a Look to the Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Wakefield ◽  
Theodore Tomasi ◽  
Angeline Morrow ◽  
Christopher Pfeifer ◽  
Heath Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Public ◽  
Habitat Equivalency Analysis ◽  
Natural Resource Damage Assessment ◽  
Creative Solutions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Technical Basis

ABSTRACT Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) is a process used to determine the amount of compensation due to the public for natural resource injuries arising from oil spills. Two models, Resource Equivalency Analysis (REA) and Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA), are used in essentially all OPA NRDAs to compute compensatory restoration requirements. REA is applied when members of wildlife populations are injured: usually mortality or a loss of reproduction among a species of bird, turtle, marine mammal, or fish. HEA is used when habitats are injured: usually oiling of beaches, wetlands, or sediments. The models are often implemented in a cooperative setting with input from both the Responsible Party and the Trustees. In this setting the models provide a structure for organizing negotiations and identifying the types of agreements that need to be reached before restoration can be identified and “right sized.” The models also have a technical basis in economic theory that is fully justified, but only in particular, limited circumstances. This technical basis is the only means of assuring the Trustees, RPs, and stakeholders that the NRDA process has identified an appropriate level of compensation. When the circumstances of a spill do not approximate those in which HEA and REA are defensible, creative solutions are needed to adjust the models to the circumstances of the case if they are to provide a convincing basis for scaling restoration and reaching resolution. This paper identifies the circumstances under which REA and HEA are fully defensible as well as 35 years of evolving adjustments designed to make them “work” when applied to real-world cases they do not quite fit. We also look to the future and how climate change may alter restoration scaling.

scholarly journals On the contribution of immune 42 mechanisms to the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy

1996 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
О. I. Kamayeva ◽  
V. V. Sura
Keyword(s):  
Renal Failure ◽  
Diabetic Nephropathy ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Kidney Tissue ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chronic Hemodialysis ◽  
Patients With Diabetes ◽  
End Stage ◽  
The Cost

Diabetic nephropathy (NF) came first among all the specified causes of end-stage renal failure. Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) make up more than half of all patients treated with chronic hemodialysis in the United States and Western Europe. Among patients with diabetes with terminal renal failure, 60% are people over 50 years old, so hemodialysis is not always prescribed. However, hemodialysis is increasingly used in elderly and senile patients; therefore, the proportion of patients with diabetes, especially type II diabetes, in hemodialysis centers will increase, significantly increasing the cost of treating diabetes. Currently, along with metabolic, hemodynamic and genetic theories, the role of immune disorders in the formation and progression of DNs is being discussed. The prerequisites for the formation of a hypothesis about the immune genesis of DNs were the frequent detection of increased levels of circulating immune complexes (CICs) and immunoglobulins in the blood, as well as deposits of immunoglobulins and complement in the kidney structures of patients with diabetes. However, among researchers there is no unanimity in the explanation of these facts. Many consider indisputably existing immune abnormalities inherent in DN as non-specific epiphenomes. The immune hypothesis of the pathogenesis of DN was formulated back in the 70s. The currently accumulated data suggest the participation of the immunocomplex mechanism in the development of DN. Immunofluorescence examination of the kidney tissue of patients with diabetes almost always reveals a luminescence of IgG, IgM, less often IgA, SZ and other complement fractions along the basal membranes of the glomeruli (BMC) and tubules of focal granular and linear in nature.

scholarly journals Extrapolating Injury from Larger to Smaller Oil Spills: Lessons in Louisiana

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-217
Author(s):  
John C. Kern
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Aquatic Organisms ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Injury Assessment ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACT One challenge for trustees in a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) is to adequately quantify natural resource injuries in a cost-effective manner. This is particularly true for smaller spills, where the cost of more expansive and more expensive injury assessment studies could dwarf the cost of the restoration actions to compensate for those injuries. The need for cost-effective assessments must he balanced against the need for the assessment methods to be technically defensible and useful in identifying and scaling appropriate restoration actions. In this paper, it is shown how the injury assessment results from the Lake Barre oil spill of May 1997 (which released 6,561 barrels of crude oil) were used to help inform trustees about the likely magnitude of injury for two smaller crude oil spills in Louisiana. For the Lake Barre spill, the trustees developed an incident-specific model—adapted from the Type A model—to quantify injury to birds and aquatic fauna. The results of this model were used to evaluate a restoration offer as compensation for these injuries from the responsible party (RP). Subsequently, the results of the Lake Barre assessment were used to help quantify injury to birds and aquatic organisms for the September 1998 release of up to 1,500 barrels of crude oil from a well blowout into Lake Grande Ecaille. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) again used the Lake Barre results to quantify injury to water column organisms for a November 1999 release of 850 barrels of crude oil from a pipeline in Four-Bayou Pass. Estimating injury by extrapolation from one spill to similar spills represents one cost-effective approach toward quantifying injury for small incidents, and should be considered as a potential injury assessment method for those spills where it is impractical or otherwise difficult to justify conducting large incident-specific injury studies. This technique can be done quickly, potentially speeding the settlement and restoration implementation process, thereby compensating the public in an expeditious manner.

LOST BIRD-YEARS: QUANTIFYING BIRD INJURIES IN NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS FOR OIL SPILLS1

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 1019-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Zafante ◽  
Steve Hampton
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Ecological Benefits ◽  
Restoration Project ◽  
The Public ◽  
Recovery Times ◽  
Bird Mortality ◽  
Recovery Mechanisms ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACT Large oil spills routinely impact hundreds or even thousands of birds. In order to determine the compensation that responsible parties owe the public, trustee agencies typically examine the number of live and dead birds collected to estimate total bird mortality caused by the spill (Ford et al., 1987). In these natural resource damage assessments (NRDA), compensation is typically based upon the potential ecological benefits that flow from a restoration project. In the case of a bird kill, final compensation is based upon the cost of implementing a restoration project and not upon a dollar value per bird. The dominant paradigm for calculating compensatory restoration for bird injuries is Resource Equivalency Analysis (REA). This paper begins by providing a brief overview of REA when applied to birds. We then examine the REA implications of varying the level of mortality, baseline variability, and demographic variables in a simple population model that tracks both injured and baseline population levels. After finding no evidence that these factors necessarily produce short recovery times, we summarize two general approaches for calculating lost bird-years. We conclude that short recovery times (e.g., one-year) are unlikely for birds when using individual-based measures of injury. Further, we believe that recovery times may be much longer than currently calculated for situations where plausible “recovery mechanisms” cannot be defined.

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