Much land is subject to damage by construction, development and exploitation with consequent loss of environmental function and services. How might the loss be recovered? This article develops principles of environmental rehabilitation. Key issues include the following. Rehabilitation means restoring the previous condition. Whether or not to restore is not a technical but a value judgement. It is subject to adopting the sustainability ethic. If the ethic is followed under rule of law then rehabilitation must be done always to ‘the high standard’ which means handing down unimpaired environmental function and no extra land management. The elements of the former condition that it is intended to restore must be specified. Restoring these in any given case is the purpose of that rehabilitation project. The specified restoration elements must be easily measurable with a few simple powerful metrics. Some land damage is not fixable so restraint must be exercised in what construction, development and exploitation are permitted. If sustainability is adopted then cost benefit analysis is not a valid form of project appraisal because trading off present benefits against future losses relies on subjectively decided discount rates, and because natural capital is hard to price, indispensable, irreplaceable and non-substitutable. Elements often to be restored include agricultural land capability, landscape form and environmental function. Land capability is a widely used convention and, with landscape form, encapsulate many key land factors, and are easily measurable. Restoring soil and thereby environmental function provides the necessary base for an ecological pyramid. The need for rehabilitation is not to be justified by cost-benefit or scientific and technological proof, but rests on a value judgement to sustain natural capital for present and future generations. Decision on what activities and projects to permit should be based on what is physically and financially fixable on current knowledge. Business and government must be proactive, develop rehabilitation standards, work out how to meet the standards, design simple powerful metrics to measure performance against the standards, embark on continuous improvement, and report.

中文翻译：

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受损土地的环境修复

许多土地因建设，开发和开发而遭受破坏，从而丧失了环境功能和服务。如何弥补损失？本文提出了环境修复的原则。关键问题包括以下内容。康复意味着恢复以前的状况。是否恢复不是技术判断，而是价值判断。它受制于可持续性道德。如果遵守法治的道德规范，则必须始终按照“高标准”进行恢复，这意味着不损害环境功能，并且不进行额外的土地管理。必须指定要恢复的先前条件的元素。在任何给定的情况下恢复这些都是该恢复项目的目的。指定的恢复元素必须可以通过一些简单而强大的指标轻松进行测量。一些土地破坏是无法修复的，因此必须在允许的建筑，开发和开发中加以限制。如果采用可持续性，那么成本效益分析就不是项目评估的有效形式，因为要权衡当前收益与未来损失取决于主观决定的折现率，而且自然资本难以定价，必不可少，不可替代且不可替代。通常需要恢复的要素包括农地能力，景观形式和环境功能。土地能力是一种广泛使用的惯例，具有景观形式，封装了许多关键的土地因素，并且易于测量。恢复土壤，从而恢复环境功能，为生态金字塔提供了必要的基础。重建的必要性不以成本效益或科学和技术证明为依据，而是基于价值判断来维持今世后代的自然资本。决定哪些活动和项目应允许基于当前知识在物理和财务上可确定的内容。企业和政府必须积极主动，制定康复标准，制定出符合标准的方法，设计简单而有效的度量标准，以根据标准衡量绩效，着手进行持续改进并进行报告。而是基于价值判断来维持今世后代的自然资本。关于允许哪些活动和项目的决定，应基于现有知识在物理上和财务上可确定的内容。企业和政府必须积极主动，制定康复标准，制定出符合标准的方法，设计简单而有效的度量标准，以根据标准衡量绩效，着手进行持续改进并进行报告。而是基于价值判断来维持今世后代的自然资本。关于允许哪些活动和项目的决定，应基于现有知识在物理上和财务上可确定的内容。企业和政府必须积极主动，制定康复标准，制定出符合标准的方法，设计简单而强大的度量标准，以根据标准衡量绩效，着手进行持续改进并进行报告。