However, restoration can mitigate and correct the degraded habitat allowing the stream to recover lost biological integrity. The scale of benefits and costs is an important consideration. Restoration projects may sometimes be small components of larger watershed restoration programs. Results of a project may be realized quickly only at the local level with relatively small results at the watershed level. Summing all potential benefits and costs across all projects within a watershed over a number of years provides a cumulative perspective through which the cost effectiveness of ecological restoration can be more realistically determined.
Value is also an important consideration in the identification of benefits.
There are several ways to value the environment based on human use and appreciation. If all benefits can be quantified monetarily, total costs can be compared to benefits in two ways. Neither approach is the most appropriate in all cases. A clear understanding of objectives is essential for the analysis. Moreover, cost effectiveness is relative and may change under different circumstances.