Editor\u27s Introduction to the Special Edition: The Economics of Climate Change in Coastal Areas

Editor\u27s introduction to the Special Edition on the Economics of Climate Change Adaptation in Coastal Area

Measurement of the Ocean and Coastal Economy: Theory and Methods

This paper supplements reports and data released on the coastal and ocean economy of the United States by the National Ocean Economics Project. It provides a discussion of the relevant literature involved in the investigation of the ocean and coastal related economy, the theoretical background of measures such as gross domestic and gross state product, and provides details on sources, methods, assumptions, and limitations of the data provided by NOEP

The Employment Impacts of Wind Power Development in Maine 2003-2010

The development of wind power in Maine has emerged as a significant economic opportunity in the past several years, providing one of the few growing sectors in the latter half of the last decade. The employment impact of this development has been discussed in regulatory filings before, but has not been examined in detail using post-construction data on actual wind power projects. This report examines the employment impacts of three major wind power projects: Mars Hill in Aroostook County, Stetson Mountain in Washington County, and Kibby Mountain in Franklin County. (Stetson and Kibby were undertaken in two phases.) These projects together provide 257 megawatts of installed generating capacity

A Guide to Creating Core Ocean GDP Accounts

Start with a simple question. What does the ocean contribute to the national economy? This might seem like a trivial question. After all, the contributions of other major natural resources such as agriculture or forest products are regularly counted as the output of farming, food, and fibre industries along with lumber and other forest products. But in most countries, there is no identifiable “ocean economy”. Industries like marine transportation or fishing are accounted for, but nothing that ties all the varied ocean-related economic activity together. Without a deliberate effort to identify and measure all relevant economic activity related to the ocean as part of a comprehensive account it is easy to miss industries like tourism and recreation or marine construction. Combining data on ocean-related economic activities to provide an ongoing, comprehensive picture of how ocean and coastal resources that can be used for a variety of purposes is the task of creating what can be called core ocean accounts. This process is underway in many countries around the world, and many others are considering creating their own core ocean accounts or are asking whether it is worth doing so. This guidance document has been prepared to assist the latter countries decide whether and how to proceed with creating core ocean accounts. For those countries that have created accounts, it provides a review of methodologies that may improve future versions of their accounts. The guidance is designed for readers with little familiarity with economics but also contains practical information for specialists who may work such accounts. Why are they called “core” ocean accounts? Ocean accounting is envisioned as a system of measurement that can show the complex interactions of physical, biological, social, and economic systems in ways that are consistent, understandable, and actionable. Full ocean accounts as envisioned by the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) will consider not only the value of labour and capital employed in directly producing goods and services associated with the ocean, but also the values of the ocean natural capital whose returns are not paid for in the transactions that make up what we usually think of as “the economy”. Ocean accounts can also include ways to measure the capacity of organizations to address the complex systems involved. Figure 1 provides a conceptual overview of the full ocean accounting system as envisioned, with the core accounts highlighted in red. But at the core of all these “accounts” lie those goods and services whose production and sale must be understood first because they affect directly or indirectly all other values and because they are the aspects of ocean economic value. They are “core” to the ocean accounting process because they are necessary, though not sufficient. This does not mean that setting up ocean accounts must start with the national income-based accounts. For many reasons a country may choose to start the ocean accounting process with an environmental account for a particular region or resource, and other guidance for the creation of these accounts will be available from GOAP (www.oceanaccounts.org)

Economic Development Analysis & Action Plan: Camden, Maine

This report addresses the issues of economic growth in the context of the Town of Camden, one of the 20 communities examined in the Gateway 1 planning process. The intention of this Commercial Development Inventory and Economic Development Analysis is to guide the Economic Development efforts of Camden for the next 5-10 years within the context of the Gateway 1 initiative

The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics: An Introduction and Invitation

The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics publishes research, literature reviews, and application reports that use the theories and methods of economics to shape the understanding of oceans and their resources, and coastal regions. The Journal is intended for a broad audience of scholars and practitioners in economics and ocean and coastal management. Oceans includes the major oceans, bays, and estuaries, but other definitions may be proposed. Articles addressing both economic values and the measurement of economic activity in ocean industries are included, along with articles addressing the economy of coastal regions. The Journal uses an open peer review system and Web-based technologies to encourage and open and active community of researchers. Lea este abstracto y los demás abstractos del número inaugural en españo

Measurement of the Ocean Economy From National Income Accounts to the Sustainable Blue Economy

The widespread efforts to incorporate the economic values of oceans into national income accounts have reached a stage where coordination of national efforts is desirable. A symposium held in 2015 began this process by bringing together representatives from ten countries. The symposium concluded that a definition of core ocean industries was possible but beyond that core the definition of ocean industries is in flux. Better coordination of ocean income accounts will require addressing issues of aggregation, geography, partial ocean industries, confidential, and imputation is also needed. Beyond the standard national income accounts, a need to incorporate environmental resource and ecosystem service values to gain a complete picture of the economic role of the oceans was identified. The U.N. System of Environmental and Economic Accounts and the Experimental Ecosystem Service Accounts provide frameworks for this expansion. This will require the development of physical accounts of environmental assets linked to the economic accounts as well as the adaptation of transaction and welfare based economic valuation methods to environmental resources and ecosystem services. The future development of ocean economic data is most likely to require cooperative efforts at development of metadata standards and the use of multiple platforms of opportunity created by policy analysis, economic development, and conservation projects to both collect new economic data and to sustain ocean economy data collection into the future by building capacity in economic data collection and use.