Full document / COSOC-W-86-002 - the National Sea Grant Library

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these projects. Our criteria for success must therefore be defined
after the fact, and may not be the same as those envisioned by the
contractor or regulatory agency. It is unlikely that a particular
restoration project could meet all possible criteria for success,
such as increasing productivity, providing habitat for particular
species, controlling erosion, and improving water quality, without
studies of conditions existing before the projects and a knowledge
of natural population variability, it is difficult to evaluate
habitat replacement—which is the goal usually suggested or Implied
for restoration projects.
Success can be defined in terms of plant survival of the
species planted and how this provides for in-kind replacement of the
plant species lost. However, even these criteria pose difficulties
in defining success unless: