EP 1165-2-1
30 Jul 99
of species representing a specified and recognized resource type,
ecosystem, community, etc.; biodiversity as expressed by changes in
biodiversity index "alpha"; and so on. Corps environmental projects
produce changes in the number of units of specified outputs: habitat
units, value of an index.
(2) Significance. Significance is the environmental
counterpart to monetized NED benefits. It is the basis for valuing
the worth of outputs. Significance is established using standard
categories and criteria. The categories within which significance
arguments are made and evidence presented, as established by the WRC,
are legal/institutional, scientific/technical, and public perception.
Supplementing the WRC categories the Corps adds the idea of scarcity.
In other words, continuing scarcity is a necessary component of
significance. Outputs of Corps projects must be significant. The
significance of outputs is the justification for Corps environmental
investments, just as monetized benefits are the justification for
traditional water resources projects. Significance arguments must be
substantial and documented.
(3) Cost Effectiveness. Each plan and each plan scale eligible
for recommendation must be the least cost way of achieving its level
of output. Furthermore, the cost effectiveness of plans and plan
scales should be supported by documentation. This will frequently
mean recognized techniques for formulating or discovering/isolating
cost effective plans should be employed. Except in simple cases, cost
effective plans and plan scales can not be formulated or
discovered/isolated by intuition, negotiation or trial and error.
Plans developed in these ways may be good plans, but they can not
usually be demonstrated to be cost effective plans.
e. Environmental Restoration Projects and Recreation.
Environmental restoration projects are not recreation projects.
Formulation proceeds for environmental outputs and justification is
based on the relative value of the those outputs. Recreation
associated with the outputs may be important ancillary information.
Except in true mulitple-purpose projects, recreation is not the
principal justification.
f. Decision Rule for Environmental Projects. The decision rule
is to recommend a justified environmental project. The best
environmental project is that project for which the value, as based on
significance and scarcity, of the last added increment of output just
equals the (minimum) cost of producing that increment. Another plan
or plan scale may be recommended as long as it is justified, and the
tradeoffs when compared to the best environmental project are evident
and reasonable.
5-9. Selection of a Recommended Plan. The planning process leads to
the identification of alternative plans that could be recommended; one
of which is to be designated as the NED plan, or the plan for
projects with environmental restoration outputs only, and/or the plan
for projects with economic and environmental restoration outputs
(multi-purpose). The culmination of the process is the selection of
the recommended plan from among the alternatives, or the decision to
take no action. This selection is based on a comparison of the
evaluated effects (NED, environmental, social, regional; tangible or
intangible) and consideration of how well each plan meets tests of
completeness, effectiveness, efficiency and acceptability and how well
they meet the planning objectives. For Federal development, the NED
plan, the plan for single-purpose environmental restoration projects
5-12
Previous Page
