The papers included on this page include references concerning the use of Habitat Equivalency Analysis as well as general guidance concerning scaling of compensatory restoration. We will be regularly updating this page (both the bibliography and studies linked below); if you are interested in receiving notification of new studies added, please e-mail Anthony Dvarskas to be on our distribution list.

• DARRP Technical Paper 97-1, October, 1998. An approach to calculating natural resource compensation with a specific application to the Blackbird Mine hazardous waste site in Idaho. The paper focuses on the interim loss portion of a damage claim and presents an integrated framework of biology and economics for determining the scale of compensatory restoration actions appropriate to compensate for the interim loss of natural resources and services.
• "Discounting and the Treatment of Uncertainty in Natural Resource Damage Assessment", February 1999. - NOAA's final regulations for natural resource damage assessments under OPA address discounting and uncertainty in the calculation of damage claims. The document offered here, "Discounting and the Treatment of Uncertainty in Natural Resource Damage Assessment", Technical Paper provides additional explanation and examples of the approaches outlined in the regulations. The document is not regulatory; rather, it is presented to elaborate on the language in the OPA final regulations regarding the treatment of discounting and uncertainty in damage assessments. We recommend that this approach also be used for assessments conducted under CERCLA and the National Marine Sanctuaries Act unless the regulations therein specifically require otherwise.
• Habitat Equivalency Analysis ("HEA") - Collection of papers on Habitat Equivalency Analysis ("HEA") that provides detailed information on using this analytical framework for estimating how much restoration is needed to compensate for the interim loss of natural resources. HEA directly addresses the type and scale of restoration, without directly valuing the interim loss in economic terms. These documents were developed for natural resource damage assessments involving injury to seagrass beds and coral reefs in the Florida Keys. The documents are:
• "Habitat Equivalency Analysis: An Overview", March 1995.
• Report by Dr. Joseph C. Zieman in U.S. v. Melvin A. Fisher et al. January 1997.
• Report by Brian E. Julius, NOAA, in U.S. v. Melvin A. Fisher et al. January 1997.
• Report by Mark S. Fonseca, NOAA, in U.S. v. Melvin A. Fisher et al. January 1997.
• "Comparing Ecosystem Services and Values" by Dennis M. King, Ph.D. January 1997.
• "Calculating Resource Restoration for an Oil Discharge in Lake Barre, Louisiana, USA" . This paper presents an oil spill case from coastal Louisiana where habitat equivalency analysis was applied to quantify natural resource impacts and determine the scale of restoration. The article appears in Environmental Management as "Calculating Resource Restoration for an Oil Discharge in Lake Barre, Louisiana, USA" by T. Penn and T. Tomasi, 2002, Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 691-702.
• List of Habitat Types and Functions, definitions.
• Scaling Compensatory Restoration Actions: Guidance Document for Natural Resource Damage Assessment Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, December 1997.

For further information, the bibliography below lists several HEA-related publications in academic texts:

Allen PD II, Chapman DJ, Lane D (2004a) Scaling environmental restoration to offset injury using habitat equivalency analysis. In: Bruins RJF, Heberling MT (eds) Economics and ecological risk assessment: Applications to watershed management. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp 165–184.

Allen PD II, Raucher R, Strange E, Mills D, Beltman D (2004b) The habitat-based replacement cost method: Building on habitat equivalency analysis to inform regulatory or permit decisions under the Clean Water Act. In: Bruins RJF, Heberling MT (eds) Economics and ecological risk assessment: Applications to watershed management. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp 401–422.

Barnthouse LW, Stahl RG (2002) Quantifying natural resource injuries and ecological service reductions: Challenges and opportunities. Environ Manage 30:1–12.

Cacela D, Lipton J, Beltman D, Hansen J, Wolotira R (2005) Associating ecosystem service losses with indicators of toxicity in habitat equivalency analysis. Environ Manage 35:343– 351.

Dunford RW, Ginn TC, Desvousges WH (2004) The use of habitat equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments. Ecol Econ 48:49–70.

Flores, NE, Thacher J (2002) Money, who needs it? Natural resource damage assessment. Contemporary Econ Pol 20: 171-178.

Fonseca MS, Julius BE, Kenworthy WJ (2000) Integrating biology and economics in seagrass restoration: How much is enough and why? Ecol Engin 15:227-237.

Hampton S, Zafonte M (2005) Calculating compensatory restoration in natural resource damage assessments: Recent experience in California. In: Magoon OT, Converse H, Baird B, Jines B, Miller-Henson M (eds) Proceedings of the California and the World Ocean 02 conference: Revisiting and revising California's ocean agenda. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia, pp 933–944.

Jones, CA, Pease KA (1997) Restoration-based compensation measures in natural resource liability statutes. Contemporary Econ Pol 15: 111-122.

Mazzotta, M.J, Opaluch JJ, Grigalunas T (1994) Natural resource damage assessment: The role of resource restoration. Nat Resour J 34: 153-178.

Milon JW, Dodge RE (2001) Applying habitat equivalency analysis for coral reef damage assessment and restoration. Bull Mar Sci

Penn T, Tomasi T (2002) Calculating resource restoration for an oil discharge in Lake Barre, Louisiana, USA. Environ Manage 29(5):691–702.

Roach B, Wade WW (2006) Policy evaluation of natural resource injuries using habitat equivalency analysis. Ecol Econ 58: 421-433.

Strange E, Galbraith H, Bickel S, Mills D, Beltman D, Lipton J (2002) Determining ecological equivalence in service-to-service scaling of salt marsh restoration. Env Manage 29:290-300.

Thur SM (2007) Refining the use of habitat equivalency analysis. Env Manage 40:161-170.

Unsworth RE, Bishop RC (1994) Assessing natural resource damages using environmental annuities. Ecol Econ 11:35–41.

Viehman S, Thur SM, Piniak GA (2009) Coral reef metrics and habitat equivalency analysis. Ocean Coast Manage 52:181-188.

Zafonte M, Hampton S (2007) Exploring welfare implications of resource equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments. Ecol Econ 61(1):134–145.

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