Adapting Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA) to assess environmental loss and compensatory restoration following severe forest fires

Challenges in Using Habitat Equivalency Analysis for Scaling Compensatory Restoration

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2003-1-791 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 2003 (1) ◽

pp. 791-796 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2001-2-983 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 2001 (2) ◽

pp. 983-986 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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.

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