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Coastal Recreation in Southern New England: Results from a Regional Survey
Full text linkThis paper presents a summary of coastal recreation of New England residents from a survey conducted in the summer of 2018. The management of New England’s coasts benefits from understanding the value of coastal recreation and the factors influencing recreational behavior. To address this need, the survey collected the geographic location and trip details for both day and overnight visits to any type of location on the New England coast for a range of water recreation activities, providing a comprehensive view of coastal recreation in the region. This paper summarizes participation in various types of water recreation activities, including beachgoing, swimming, fishing, wildlife viewing, boating, and other coastal recreation activities. We quantify demand for coastal recreation using participation and effort models that disaggregate the dimensions of recreational behavior over space and census demographics. This provides insights on the scale and location of beneficiaries of this important human use of the natural environment. We found that 71% of people in the surveyed region participate in coastal recreation and engage in a wide range of coastal recreation activities at varied locations from open-ocean-facing coastal beaches to sheltered, estuarine ways to water. On average, people in the region take 37 trips to recreate on the coast of New England in a year, spending 167 hours per year visiting recreation sites and 66 hours traveling. This adds up to nearly 170.5 million trips from our sample region, 772.4 million hours of recreation time, and 304.6 million hours of travel time. Distance to the coast, demographics, and recreational activities affect how often people go and how much time they spend on coastal recreation
CBE Waves Newsletter: December 2021
Full text linkThe Economic Value of America\u27s Estuaries How Little We Know: Humans and Recreation on the California Coast Checking in On Ocean-Based Solutions Build Back Better and the Ocean Climate Action Plan Student Alice McGown attended COP26 with one focused message: Leave It In The Ground Transatlantic Blue Economy Initiative Student Mary Patenburg contributes to two WWF articles Visualizing the Three- Dimensional Footprint of Ocean Uses DIVE-An Inspiring Journey through California\u27s Marine Protected Areas with Virtual Reality Celebrating Ten Years at the Center for the Blue Econom
CBE Waves Newsletter: September 2021
Full text linkOcean Climate Action and the New Blue Economy: Video from Session #4 of the 5th International Symposium on Ocean Accounts Ocean Climate Action Lobby Day follow up & legislative developments Recent publications by Center for the Blue Economy Staff and Affiliates Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement The 2021 Center for the Blue Economy Fellows The Center for the Blue Economy Speaker Series Youth for Ocean Climate Actio
“Measuring the Blue Economy,” in The Blue Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Working for a Sustainable Future
No full textOf the 53 countries and territories that make up Sub-Saharan Africa, 32 are coastal states. There are 13 million square km of maritime zones, and more than 90% of the region’s exports and imports come by sea. The Blue Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Working for a Sustainable Future provides, for the first time, a study of the constraints and opportunities the blue economy offers for sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Charles Colgan co-authored chapter 10, “Measuring the Blue Economy,” along with Vivian Louis Forbes and Iddi Mwanyoka. This chapter also stems from a research project funded by the World Wildlife Federation with Dr. Colgan as principle investigator setting a baseline for measuring the blue economies of Kenya and Tanzania. The Blue Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Working for a Sustainable Future, edited By Donald Sparks, published June 17, 2021 by Routledge
Checking in on ocean-based climate solutions: Where we are and where we need to be
No full textThe potential of the ocean for accelerating decarbonisation merits prioritisation in the global climate-change discourse. The ocean presents substantial climate mitigation and carbon storage options to help limit global warming, while simultaneously introducing opportunities for economic gain.
A wide variety of stakeholders, including businesses, academics, policymakers, multilateral groups and non-governmental organisations, are working to further develop and define ocean- based climate solutions. This report captures key narratives around such solutions through four sector-specific categories: clean energy; transport; food systems; and carbon dioxide removal and storage
Preparing a Workforce for the New Blue Economy: The importance of the new blue economy to a sustainable blue economy: an opinion
No full textAbout the Book: Preparing a Workforce for the New Blue Economy: People, Products and Policies discusses the Blue Economy, how the industry will develop, and how to train the next generation. The book considers the use of big data, key skillsets, training undergraduate and graduate students, the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) in the US, economic opportunities in African coastal countries, and governmental agencies, non-profits and NGO’s. Finally, a broad range of case studies are provided, covering oil spills, commercial fishing, data protection and harvesting, sustainability and weather forecasting, all presented to highlight the educational requirements of the workforce and potential economic opportunities.
About Dr. Kildow\u27s chapter: The ocean-dependent economy is a popular topic in international circles, because the ocean floor, water column and coastal waters have become new frontiers replacing declining land options to meet traditional societal needs. Oceans and shorelines increasingly attract commercial, industrial and environmental attention for traditional as well as new uses and more efficient and cleaner uses. The purpose of this piece is to clarify and expand understanding of the importance of the ocean economy and its dependence on a healthy ocean. It focuses on the relationship of the New Blue Economy which helps transform key marine science knowledge into usable strategies toward a more sustainable larger Blue Economy. Definitions are provided to untangle the confusing use of terms to describe the ocean-dependent economy. While stressing the high value importance of the ocean’s economy, this chapter also describes the high risks faced from climate-induced and pollution impacts that threaten its future promise
The Economic Value of America’s Estuaries: 2021 Report
Full text linkThis study builds on the work completed in 2009, “The Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries: What’s At Stake?,” a report by NOAA in collaboration with the Center for the Blue Economy and the Ocean Foundation, at the request of Restore America’s Estuaries. Like the 2009 study, the 2021 update uses the same data sources (Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis and NOAA), and looks in detail at the same five major sectors of the U.S. economy (fisheries, energy infrastructure, marine transportation, real estate, and recreation) from 2009-2018.
The 2021 update includes the economic value of natural coastal infrastructure and coastal blue carbon storage for six regions:
• Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey
• Palmico Sound and the Lower Neuse River, North Carolina
• Tampa Bay, Florida
• Terrebonne Basin, Louisiana
• San Pablo Bay, California
• Snohomish River Estuary, Washington
For the six areas above, a thirty-year data set,1970-2020, was included in addition to the key economic metrics, drawn from NOAA data and premised on two fundamental principles: First, that natural infrastructure and blue carbon value is derived from the ability of these systems to avoid future economic damages; Secondly, and most important, the actual value is dependent on keeping existing wetlands intact. The reduction or elimination of flood losses and the avoided release of carbon stores are what determine the economic value.
“The Economic Value of America’s Estuaries, 2021 Report,” has two main purposes: to update our understanding of the contributions of estuary regions to the economy of the U.S, and to expand our understanding of those values by examining the values provided by reduction in flood damages (natural infrastructure function) and the value provided by storing carbon dioxide (the blue carbon function).
This report provides decision makers a methodolgically sound baseline for both of those criteria, and it provides the basis for some good news: we can mitigate the most dire climate impacts by investing in and protecting America’s estuaries, deltas, bays, coastlines and Great Lakes
CBE Waves Newsletter: April 2021
Full text linkCelebrating a successful Ocean Climate Action Lobby Day Celebrating a Decade of Advocating for the Blue Economy Film Screening and Filmmaker Discussion: The Hunter Legacy, Conflict, Survival and Extinction in Modern Keny
Whither the Arctic Ocean?: Research, Knowledge Needs, and Development en Route to the New Arctic. Chapter 3:Complex Collaboration Tools for a Sustainable New Arctic
No full textAbout the Book: Whither the Arctic Ocean?: Research, Knowledge Needs, and Development en Route to the New Arctic. Climate change in the Arctic Ocean (AO) has stirred a remarkable surge of interest and concerns, including among non-Arctic states, non-state actors and the general public. Lack of long-term scientific observations makes it difficult to assess whether Arctic changes statistically represent a new climate, but extremes have become routine in what most consider as an emerging “new Arctic” (e.g., Landrum and Holland 2020). In light of this, the present volume brings together the personal viewpoints, impressions and suggestions of a range of Arctic researchers with a multi- and transdisciplinary background. The authors come from the entire expanse of the pan-Arctic region, which is by far the world’s most climatically impacted. Their experience derives from a wide scope of endeavors: politics, management, industry and the entire range of basic humanistic and natural science research. What the authors have in common is their work in and for the Arctic and their awareness regarding the multi- and transdisciplinary nature of the drive to understand and manage climate change. “Whither are we bound?” would be a typical phrase in older English that covers the essence of the authors’ concerns. Attempting to answer this demanding question is the ultimate goal of this volume. As with all complex systems, there is not one answer, but several that embrace uncertainty and skepticism.
About Chapter Three: Complex Collaboration Tools for a Sustainable New Arctic. The rapid and extreme changes in Arctic Ocean and other environments create an urgent need to muster the knowledge and skills of scientists,Indigenous experts, and policy makers to collaborate toward a sustainable socioecological system in the Arctic. How, exactly, to engineer a successful collaboration of such diverse parties is not obvious. We propose, however, that a sustainable Arctic will depend as much on such an intricate collaboration as on effective observing systems and climate models. This chapter will, therefore, explore the need and potential for tools to facilitate such a grand collaboration
Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement—An Overview
No full textAs coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise (SLR) and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications