Definition of Terms

Acquisition: The gaining of possession or control over something.1

Adaptive management: An approach to the management of natural resources that is based on learning by doing, and on making decisions as part of an on-going process of monitoring, review, and adaptation. A planned course of action is kept under constant review, and is adapted where appropriate as new information becomes available from the monitoring of results, publication of new findings and expert judgments, and changing needs of society.2

Agreement: A mutual understanding between two or more persons about their relative rights and duties regarding past or future performances. (For a more detailed description of Marine Conservation Agreements, see Overview.)1

Aquaculture: The cultivation of marine or freshwater food fish or shellfish, such as oysters, clams, salmon, and trout, and the farming of aquatic plants, under controlled conditions.2

Assemblage property value: The value of property attributed to combining two or more adjoining properties. Usually used to piece together several properties for it to be able to be developed in some fashion.3

Assent: Agreement, approval, or permission.1

Authorization: A device that gives legal authority.1

Baseline inventory: A study that determines the existing conditions and trends in a location where some form of change is proposed or likely, such as a change in land use, or the likelihood of air or water pollution.2

Benthic resource: An organism that lives on or in the bottom of a body of water such as a river, lake, or sea; attached to lying on the sediment.2

Best management practices: Methods or techniques found to be the most effective and practical means in achieving an objective (such as preventing or minimizing pollution) while making the optimum use of the firm's resources.4

Biodiversity: Short for biological diversity. The number and relative abundance of different species in the world.2

Bioprospecting: The search for economically valuable new genetic and biochemical resources from nature that may serve as sources for natural products.2

Bundle of sticks: Also known as bundle of rights. The bundle of rights theory maintains that ownership of a parcel of real estate may embrace a great many rights, such as the right to its occupancy and use; the right to sell it in whole or in part; the right to bequeath; the right to transfer by contract for specified periods of time, the benefits to be derived by occupancy and use of the real estate. In the bundle of rights theory, ownership of real property is compared to a bundle of sticks. Each stick represents a distinct and separate right, which may be the right to use the real estate, to sell it, to lease it, to enter it, to give it away, or to choose to exercise more than one or none of these rights. Although subject to certain limitations and restrictions, private enjoyment of these rights is guaranteed by law under the U. S. Constitution.5

Channelization: Also known as channel improvement. An engineering scheme that is designed to stabilize a waterway to increase water flow speeds, reduce bank erosion, protect against flooding or deepen a navigational pathway.2

Common law: Also known as case law. The body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from statutes or constitutions.1

Communal ownership: Property or responsibilities shared by a community of people.1

Compensatory mitigation: Rectifying an environmental impact by repairing, enhancing, restoring or creating the affected environment or the environment elsewhere.2

Concession: A government grant for specific privileges.1

Conservation: Any voluntary action that directly protects or improves a natural habitat or process, including any subcomponent of a natural habitat or process. (For a more detailed explanation, see Conservation.)

Conservation action: The process of doing something that undertakes conservation.1

Creation: The act of developing (artificial) conditions at sites that are not naturally occurring. (For a more detailed explanation, see Conservation.)

Dredging: The process of excavating, creating, or altering a water body such as a river, lake or estuary, by scooping or sucking up sediment from the bed in order to deepen it.2

Easement: An interest in land owned by another person, consisting in the right to use or control the land, or an area above or below it, for a specific limited purpose.1

Ecosystem services: Processes or materials such as clean water, energy, climate regulation and nutrient cycling that are naturally provided by ecosystems.2

Ecosystem-based management: An integrated approach to the management of ecosystems and natural resources that seeks to balance ecological, economic, and social goals in a sustainable way, by respecting and protecting the natural integrity and processes of ecosystems, and through deliberate manipulation of ecosystem structure and/or function, and/or human uses of ecological systems.2

Ejido: In Mexico, when communal land is shared by the people of the community.

Encumbrance: A claim or liability that is attached to property or some other right and that may lessen its value; such as a lien or mortgage; any property right that is not an ownership interest.1

Enhancement: The act of heightening, intensifying, or improving naturally occurring historical conditions to sites that have been degraded but still contain some level of their historically occurring natural conditions. (For a more detailed explanation, see Conservation.)

Escrow: A legal document or property delivered by a promisor to a third party to be held by the third party for a given amount of time or until the occurrence of a condition, at which time the third party is to hand over the document or property to the promisee.1

Espigones de atraque: A jetty or structure used for boat moorage.

Exclusive economic zone: A zone in the ocean over which a particular nation has claims or exclusive rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage natural resources, as defined in the 1982 United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea.2

Exclusivity: A contract term in which one party grants another party sole rights.

Fair market value: The price that a seller is willing to accept and a buyer is willing to pay on the open market and in an arm's-length transaction.1

Fee-simple: An interest in land that, being the broadest property interest allowed by law, endures until the current holder dies without heirs.1

Grantee: One to whom property is conveyed.1

Grantor: One who conveys property to another.1

High water state: A state of the United States that generally applies the public trust doctrine or public ownership of waterways landward to a high water mark or high tide line.

Hydrologic equilibrium: A steady state of balance in a water flow system.2

Implementing action: A conservation activity undertaken as part of the long-term responsibilities of marine conservation agreements.

Indemnification warranties: A guarantee that losses or damages will be compensated for or reimbursed.1

International waters: The open seas outside of territorial waters of any individual nation.2

Intertidal: The zone of the shore that lies between the high and low water marks, which is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide.2

Investigative fishing: Fishing undertaken for scientific research purposes.

Lacustrine water: Of or relating to a lake.2

Lands and resources: Distinct elements of the environment, such as soil/sediments/sand/minerals, water, air, plants, animals, and fungi. (For a more detailed description, see Targets.)

Lease: A contract by which a rightful possessor of real property conveys the right to use and occupy the property in exchange for consideration, usually rent. (For a more detailed description, see Leases.)1

Less-than fee-simple: An interest in land less than the broadest property interest allowed by law.

Littoral area: Of or relating to the side of a waterbody, such as a lake or the intertidal zone.2

Live-aboarder: A person who lives on a vessel or floating house.

Low water state: A state of the United States that generally applies the public trust doctrine or public ownership of waterways landward to a low water mark or low tide line.

Marine conservation agreement: any formal or informal understanding between two or more parties in which the parties obligate themselves, for an exchange of benefits, to take certain actions, refrain from certain actions, or transfer certain rights and responsibilities to achieve agreed upon ocean or coastal conservation goals. (For a more thorough description, see Overview.)

Marine protected areas: An area of land or sea that is dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biodiversity, and of natural and cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means.2

Marine spatial planning: A process of analyzing and allocating parts of three-dimensional marine spaces (or ecosystems) to specific uses or objectives, to achieve ecological, economic and/or social objectives that are usually specified through a political process.6

Multiple-use mandates: Directives for the management of areas that require more than one objective be met, such as public recreation, natural resource extraction, environmental protection, and commerce.

Navigable water bottoms: Waterways which can float a vessel. This term may be used to determine ownership, in which case specific and different definitions may apply to states within the United States.

Non-point source pollution: Scattered sources of pollutants, such as surface water runoff from agriculture, forestry, an urban area, mining, construction, dams, land disposal and saltwater intrusion.2

Open seas: That part of the ocean that lies beyond the continental shelf.2

Ownership: The bundle of rights allowing one to use, manage, and enjoy property, including the right to convey it to others. (For a more detailed description, see Ownership.)1

Performance bonds: A bond given by a surety to ensure the timely performance of a contract.1

Pollution: The process or form of contamination.2

Preservation: The act of maintaining current conditions at sites by removing current threats and preventing future threats. (For a more detailed explanation, see Conservation.)

Productive use: An activity that provides goods and services and sustains ecological values.2

Proprietary rights: Right of, relating to, or holding as property.1

Protection: Defense against harm or danger: any activity that reduces losses or risks, tends to maintain basic conditions and values, and reduces damage or injury to people and property.2

Public trust doctrine: The principle (in the U.S.) that navigable waters are preserved for the public use, and that the state is responsible for protecting the public's right to the use.1

Resilience: The rate at which a system regains structure and function following a stress or perturbation.2

Restoration: The act of returning naturally occurring historical conditions to sites that have been degraded to such an extent that they no longer possess any of their historically occurring natural conditions. (For a more detailed explanation, see Conservation.)

Ribereno: A person who lives by a river or coast; or the riverside or coastal area itself.

Self-contained appraisal: A written appraisal report that contains all the information required by USPAP, with extensive detail.7

Shoreline hardening: Protecting or reinforcing shoreline areas with man-made structures such as rip-rap and bulkheads.

Stand-alone property value: The value of a distinct parcel of property, irrespective of other surrounding parcels.

Subaqueous lands: Tidelands and submerged lands in Delaware.

Submerged lands: Lands lying below the high tide line or high water mark in the United States. (For a more thorough description, see Submerged Lands.)

Subsistence harvest: The taking of wild animals as means to obtain food and other items that are essential for basic survival.2

Subtidal: The zone of the land that lies below the low water mark, which is submerged at both high tide and low tide.

Suitable valuation surrogates: Different replacement options for determining value.

Summary appraisal: A written appraisal report that contains a moderate amount of detail.7

Target: An element of biological diversity identified for protection or an ecosystem service identified for provision. (For a more thorough discussion, see Targets.)

Transient public use: An activity undertaken by members of the public that is temporary, impermanent, or passing away after a short time.1

Uniform Relocation Act: An Act, passed by Congress in 1970, is a federal law that establishes minimum standards for federally funded programs and projects that require the acquisition of real property (real estate) or displace persons from their homes, businesses, or farms. The Uniform Act's protections and assistance apply to the acquisition, rehabilitation, or demolition of real property for federal or federally funded projects.8

Zoning: A management tool used to control human activities in space and time.