Quantitative Analysis of Chronological Changes of the Wetland Mitigation Policy in the United States

Abstract

Currently, many countries are trying to introduce biodiversity offset policy and seeking overseas reference cases. The wetland mitigation policy in the United States is a pioneer of biodiversity offset policy and considered a useful reference case, yet the history of the policy has not been well evaluated. To understand what issues they have been addressing is essential to elicit lessons from the precedent, and quantitative analysis of longitudinal shifts of policy foci can provide objective assessment in that regard. In this research, I conducted content analysis of public documents about the wetland mitigation policy to quantitatively evaluate longitudinal shifts of policy foci. As a consequence, the analysis revealed that the policy is getting to focus more on effectiveness and efficiency and less on equity, which is different from the initial expectation based on literature review.