Approaches for Ecosystem Services Valuation for the Gulf of Mexico After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Approaches for Ecosystem Services Valuation for the Gulf of Mexico After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2012-03-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309211794

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon platform drilling the Macondo well in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (DWH) exploded, killing 11 workers and injuring another 17. The DWH oil spill resulted in nearly 5 million barrels (approximately 200 million gallons) of crude oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The full impacts of the spill on the GoM and the people who live and work there are unknown but expected to be considerable, and will be expressed over years to decades. In the short term, up to 80,000 square miles of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) were closed to fishing, resulting in loss of food, jobs and recreation. The DWH oil spill immediately triggered a process under the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) to determine the extent and severity of the "injury" (defined as an observable or measurable adverse change in a natural resource or impairment of a natural resource service) to the public trust, known as the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA). The assessment, undertaken by the trustees (designated technical experts who act on behalf of the public and who are tasked with assessing the nature and extent of site-related contamination and impacts), requires: (1) quantifying the extent of damage; (2) developing, implementing, and monitoring restoration plans; and (3) seeking compensation for the costs of assessment and restoration from those deemed responsible for the injury. This interim report provides options for expanding the current effort to include the analysis of ecosystem services to help address the unprecedented scale of this spill in U.S. waters and the challenges it presents to those charged with undertaking the damage assessment.

Liability for Damage to Public Natural Resources:Standing, Damage and Damage Assessment

Liability for Damage to Public Natural Resources:Standing, Damage and Damage Assessment
Author: Edward Brans
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2001-10-17
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9041117245

This book focuses on liability for damage to those natural resources that are of interest to the public and are protected by national, European or international law. It provides an overview of the law of the United States and of certain EU Member States on the recovery of damages for injury to natural resources. The international civil liability conventions that cover environmental harm and the recently published European Commission's White Paper on environmental liability are also discussed. The on-going development in various international forums of treaties or protocols dealing with liability for environmental damage are analyzed, as are the principles developed by the UNEP Working Group established in response to the 1990 Gulf War to advise the UNCC on claims for damage to natural resources. The book addresses assessment and valuation issues, the issue of standing in cases of injury to (un)owned natural resources, and the determination of ways to repair, restore and compensate for natural resource injuries and the associated loss of ecological and human services. It also explains why such a difference exists between the US and most European jurisdictions and inter-national liability conventions as to the recovery of damages for injury to natural resources.

The Natural Resource Damage Assessment Deskbook

The Natural Resource Damage Assessment Deskbook
Author: Valerie Ann Lee
Publisher: Environmental Law Institute
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2002
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781585760404

This book provides a comprehensive survey of the law and techniques associated with the law, science, and economics involved in natural resource damage assessment. Written by experts in the field, this new deskbook is the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the subject available. It thoroughly examines the framework for liability and the goals of the federal statutes providing a right of action for natural resource damages. Focus is maintained on the natural resource damage provisions of CERCLA; the Oil Pollution Act; the Clean Water Act; the Marine Protection, Sanctuaries, and Research Act; and the National Park System Resource Protection Act.

Coastal and Marine Environments

Coastal and Marine Environments
Author: Yeqiao Wang
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2020-05-19
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0429804725

Authored by world-class scientists and scholars, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, is an excellent reference for understanding the consequences of changing natural resources to the degradation of ecological integrity and the sustainability of life. Based on the content of the bestselling and CHOICE-awarded Encyclopedia of Natural Resources, this new edition demonstrates the major challenges that the society is facing for the sustainability of all well-being on the planet Earth. The experience, evidence, methods, and models used in studying natural resources are presented in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the main systems of land, water, and air. It reviews state-of-the-art knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and provides guidance for the appropriate use of remote sensing and geospatial data with field-based measurements in the study of natural resources. Volume 5, Coastal and Marine Environments, discusses marine and coastal ecosystems, their biodiversity, conservation, and integrated marine management plans. It provides fundamental information on coastal and estuarine systems and includes discussions on coastal erosion and shoreline change, natural disasters, evaporation and energy balance, fisheries and marine resource management, and more. New in this edition are discussions on sea level rise, renewable energy, coral reef restoration, fishery resource economics, and coastal remote sensing. This volume demonstrates the key processes, methods, and models used through many case studies from around the world. Written in an easy-to-reference manner, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, as individual volumes or as a complete set, is an essential reading for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the science and management of natural resources. Public and private libraries, educational and research institutions, scientists, scholars, and resource managers will benefit enormously from this set. Individual volumes and chapters can also be used in a wide variety of both graduate and undergraduate courses in environmental science and natural science at different levels and disciplines, such as biology, geography, earth system science, and ecology.

Measuring Nonuse Damages Using Contingent Valuation

Measuring Nonuse Damages Using Contingent Valuation
Author: William H. Desvousges
Publisher: RTI Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2010-09-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 193483100X

This second edition of Measuring Nonuse Damages Using Conjoint Valuation is essentially a reprint of a 1992 monograph that has been in steady demand since its original appearance. The RTI Press edition, which is intended to meet continued inquiries and requests for the monograph, contains a Foreword and a Preface to the second edition that put the original work into historical perspective. These studies of ways to value stated preferences, as applied then to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, continue to be a timely and still-rigorous examination of such methods; even with the passage of time and statistical advances from the past two decades, the conclusions and insights as to whether and how these techniques might still be employed in valuing use or nonuse losses from similar events remain valid.

Assessing and Restoring Natural Resources in Post-conflict Peacebuilding

Assessing and Restoring Natural Resources in Post-conflict Peacebuilding
Author: David Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 519
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1849712344

Violent conflict invariably disrupts people's livelihoods, the natural environment, social and political institutions, and the economy at all levels. Restoring peace and rebuilding society can be arduous, but immediate action at the cessation of conflict is essential. This book examines how conflicts degrade natural resources and addresses the consequences for human health, livelihoods, and security. This book provides a concise theoretical and practical framework for policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and students.

Valuing Natural Assets

Valuing Natural Assets
Author: Raymond J. Kopp
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2013-10-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135889422

Assessing natural resource damages often requires the use of nonmarket valuation techniques that were developed for use in benefit-cost analyses. Natural resource damage assessment dramatically changes the context for applying them. Two aspects of this context are especially important. First, damages are to be measured by the monetary value of the losses people experience, including their use and nonuse values, because of injuries to natural resources---a process requiring careful delineation of how the injuries connect to the resource's services. Second, a single identified entry---not generalized, anonymous taxpayers---must pay damages based on what is measured, and evaluations of the measurement techniques take place not in agency meeting rooms but in courtrooms. Contributors to Valuing Natural Assets examine the ways in which requirements for damage assessment change how the measures are used, presented, received, and defended. Drawing upon their personal involvement with the process and the research issues it has raised---both in providing analysis for defendants or plaintiffs in damage assessment cases and in writing for academic journals---their chapters reflect individual research programs that temper the rigorous demands of scholarship with the equally demanding standards of litigation.