Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-2124, USA.
Ambio. 2013 Sep;42(5):628-43. doi: 10.1007/s13280-012-0351-9. Epub 2012 Sep 28.
Coastal and other area resources such as tidal wetlands, seagrasses, coral reefs, wetlands, and other ecosystems are often harmed by environmental damage that might be inflicted by human actions, or could occur from natural hazards such as hurricanes. Society may wish to restore resources to offset the harm, or receive compensation if this is not possible, but faces difficult choices among potential compensation projects. The optimal amount of restoration efforts can be determined by non-market valuation methods, service-to-service, or resource-to-resource approaches such as habitat equivalency analysis (HEA). HEA scales injured resources and lost services on a one-to-one trade-off basis. Here, we present the main differences between the HEA approach and other non-market valuation approaches. Particular focus is on the role of the social discount rate, which appears in the HEA equation and underlies calculations of the present value of future damages. We argue that while HEA involves elements of economic analysis, the assumption of a one-to-one trade-off between lost and restored services sometimes does not hold, and then other non-market economic valuation approaches may help in restoration scaling or in damage determination.
沿海和其他地区的资源，如潮湿地带、海草床、珊瑚礁、湿地和其他生态系统，经常受到人类活动造成的环境破坏或飓风等自然灾害的影响。社会可能希望恢复资源以抵消损害，或者在无法恢复的情况下获得赔偿，但在潜在的赔偿项目之间面临着艰难的选择。非市场估值方法、服务对服务或资源对资源的方法（如栖息地等效分析）可以确定最佳的恢复力度。栖息地等效分析在一对一的权衡基础上对受损资源和损失的服务进行了量化。本文主要介绍了栖息地等效分析方法与其他非市场估值方法的主要区别。特别关注的是社会贴现率的作用，它出现在栖息地等效分析方程中，是未来损害的现值计算的基础。我们认为，虽然栖息地等效分析涉及经济分析的要素，但在失去的和恢复的服务之间有时不存在一对一的权衡，此时其他非市场经济估值方法可能有助于恢复规模或损害确定。
