An ecological response footprint is made up of size and depth, and assessment of an ERF should consider the following two questions:

• Is the response footprint the same size, larger, smaller, patchy, or divorced from the stressor footprints?
• Is the response footprint proportionally the same depth (magnitude and duration) as the stressor footprints?

It’s not necessary to have calculated the present ecological response footprint – that’s considered in Table 1 of An ecological principles-based approach to guide coastal environmental management.