Burger Joanna, Gochfeld Michael, Greenberg Michael
Division of Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, 604 Allison Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
Environ Monit Assess. 2008 Jul;142(1-3):1-9. doi: 10.1007/s10661-007-9903-z. Epub 2007 Sep 27.
Environmental managers are faced with the wise management, sustainability, and stewardship of their land for natural resource values. This task requires the integration of ecological evaluation with economics. Using the Department of Energy (DOE) as a case study, we examine the why, who, what, where, when, and how questions about assessment and natural resource protection of buffer lands. We suggest that managers evaluate natural resources for a variety of reasons that revolve around land use, remediation/restoration, protection of natural environments, and natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). While DOE is the manager of its lands, and thus its natural resources, a range of natural resource trustees and public officials have co-responsibility. We distinguish four types of natural resource evaluations: (1) the resources themselves (to the ecosystem), (2) the value of specific resources to people (e.g. hunting/fishing/bird-watching/herbal medicines), (3) the value of ecological resources to services for communities (e.g. clean air/water), and (4) the value of the intact ecosystems (e.g. forests or estuaries). Resource evaluations should occur initially to provide information about the status of those resources, and continued evaluation is required to provide trends data. Additional natural resource evaluation is required before, during and immediately following changes in land use, and remediation or restoration. Afterwards, additional monitoring and evaluations are required to evaluate the effects of the land use change or the efficacy of remediation/restoration. There are a wide range of economic methods available to evaluate natural resources, but the methods chosen depend upon the nature of the resource being evaluated, the purpose of the evaluation, and the needs of the agencies, natural resource trustees, public officials, and the public. We discuss the uses, and the advantages and disadvantages of different evaluation methods for natural resources.
环境管理者面临着对其土地进行明智管理、可持续利用以及为自然资源价值进行保护的任务。这项任务需要将生态评估与经济学相结合。以美国能源部（DOE）为例，我们探讨了关于缓冲土地评估和自然资源保护的原因、主体、内容、地点、时间以及方式等问题。我们认为，管理者出于围绕土地利用、修复/恢复、自然环境保护以及自然资源损害评估（NRDA）等多种原因对自然资源进行评估。虽然能源部是其土地以及自然资源的管理者，但一系列自然资源受托人及政府官员也负有共同责任。我们区分了四种类型的自然资源评估：（1）资源本身（对生态系统而言），（2）特定资源对人们的价值（例如狩猎/捕鱼/观鸟/草药），（3）生态资源对社区服务的价值（例如清洁空气/水），以及（4）完整生态系统的价值（例如森林或河口）。资源评估应首先进行，以提供有关这些资源状况的信息，并且需要持续评估以提供趋势数据。在土地利用、修复或恢复发生变化之前、期间及之后，都需要进行额外的自然资源评估。之后，还需要进行额外的监测和评估，以评估土地利用变化的影响或修复/恢复的成效。有多种经济方法可用于评估自然资源，但所选择的方法取决于被评估资源的性质、评估目的以及各机构、自然资源受托人、政府官员和公众的需求。我们讨论了不同自然资源评估方法的用途、优点和缺点。
