Environmental Economics

Marine Resource Economics listed in SSCI

From the inbox:

APRIL 2008
MARINE RESOURCE ECONOMICS LISTED IN
SOCIAL SCIENCES CITATION INDEX® - WEB OF SCIENCE

Marine Resource Economics is now listed among the following Thomson Scientific products:

Social Sciences Citation Index® (Web of Science)
Science Citation Index Expanded™ (Web of Science)
Current Contents®/Social and Behavioral Sciences
Current Contents®/Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences

The Web of Science provides seamless access to current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from approximately 8,700 of the most prestigious, high-impact research journals in the world.  Users can also navigate to electronic full-text journal articles. http://scientific.thomson.com/products/wos/

Current Contents Connect® is a multidisciplinary current awareness Web resource providing access to complete bibliographic information from over 8,000 of the world's leading scholarly journals and more than 2,000 books.  http://scientific.thomson.com/products/ccc/

AS AN AUTHOR THIS MEANS:

• Increased visibility and citation of your work
• Elevated recognition and status of your research

Marine Resource Economics is the leading journal covering a range of natural resource use and economic and policy issues in the global marine environment

Some lighthouse economics

A environmental economics contributor allegory (Lighthouse seeks a beacon of hope):

Long overshadowed by the bigger and better known Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the Bodie Island Lighthouse is still living up to its reputation as the [Horatio Caine] of Outer Banks beacons.

Boys, we're getting clobbered, it's time to retreat

One kid has a 2-hour school delay, the other had her tonsils out yesterday. I'm getting nothing, no thing, done today, except some penetrating remarks about this:

The N.C. Coastal Resources Commission on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a request by the Riggings to keep its sandbags in place for the foreseeable future.

My god, what have I done!

$24 million to aid area beaches, dredging:

The [NC] coastal area is positioned to receive about $24 million for beach nourishment and dredging projects in the massive federal spending bill Congress is debating in its final hours before adjourning for the year.

I find myself a bit responsible for this bit of pork.

The increasing marginal cost of beach nourishment

Sand: Coast's most valuable resource:

Is there enough sand out there to nourish potentially more than 100 miles of beachfront as almost every town along the coast looks for help to protect its valuable oceanfront property from the encroaching Atlantic?

"Clearly there are parts of North Carolina coast where there's less sand available than other parts, which could make some nourishment projects challenging," said Harry Simmons, executive director of the N.C. Beach, Inlet and Waterway Association. "But that also means we simply have to look harder to take care of those projects."

Without technological improvement, "look harder" means increasing costs. The Federal government and beach towns already don't want to bear the burden of the costs of beach nourishment. My advice? Don't build/buy a beachfront "cottage" in North Carolina.

Property tax revenue is the worst argument ever for lax coastal building standards

Beach home limits worry coastal officials:

State regulators and environmentalists are still squabbling over a proposal to modify the state's setback rules along beaches that periodically receive a fresh injection of sand.

And now some coastal officials are concerned about language that would limit the size of the new homes to 2,000 square feet, which is meant to make relocating the homes more feasible if the rebuilt beach starts eroding.

Beach nourishment: "But the sand that was pumped there washed away within a few months."

I'm presenting "afantasticpaper.pdf" in the ASU math* department today. One conclusion is that the recreation benefits of beach nourishment exceed the costs, at least on the southern coast of North Carolina. So this article is timely, it will form my conclusions (Erosion threatens west Ocean Isle Beach):

Tom and Barbara Myers, who own a house near the west end of Ocean Isle Beach, were surprised during a recent walk to find that a big part of the beach is missing.

The coastal management equivalent of trapped coal miners

Floridians ask for state of emergency over vanishing beaches:

Homeowners living on Central Florida's east coast are asking the governor to declare a state of emergency as wind and waves from Tropical Storm Noel continue to scrape away large portions of city beaches.

More than 50 percent of the state's beaches are experiencing erosion with nearly 400 miles considered "critical" and threatening structures, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

In Satellite Beach, beach erosion has cut into sand dunes threatening homes.

Homeowner said they lost nearly 3 feet of shoreline overnight and early Thursday.

"If you have a house here, it is depressing," Satellite Beach visitor Ed Dietz said.

Brevard County officials are encouraging businesses and homeowners on the coast to contact their Chamber of Commerce to push for state emergency aid to replenish the depleted beaches.

Quand la mer monte

Anyone care to translate?

Quatre universités caroliniennes, alliées au Postdam Institut for Climat Impact, en Allemagne, ont étudié l’impact financier d’une montée plausible du niveau de la mer dans la moitié sud de l’Etat. L’hypothèse d’une hausse de 30 cm a été retenue, contre 90 cm possibles d’ici à 2100 selon le Giec (Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat). Les chercheurs ont chiffré à près de 4 milliards de dollars la perte pour le tourisme, le commerce et l’immobilier. Dans la zone étudiée, plus de 5 000 km² sont situés à 90 cm maximum au-dessus de la mer. «Même une augmentation relativement faible aurait un impact très loin dans les terres», confirme le professeur John Whitehead, de Appalachian State University, coauteur de l’étude publiée début juin (2).

Source: http://www.liberation.fr/transversales/futur/288147.FR.php.

Beach retreat

Get ready, South Nags Head (Time running out ...):

The state Division of Coastal Management is preparing notices to property owners in seven coastal counties who have sandbags, reminding them of the looming deadline for their removal, said Mike Lopazanski, the division's coastal and ocean policy manager.

After discussion of the issue in July at a Coastal Resources Commission meeting, the panel decided to allow the last extension for sandbags to expire in May 2008.