Natural Resource Economics Commons^™

What's The Value Of A State? Accounting For The Ecosystem Services And Natural Capital Of Oregon, Kathryn Liebrecht

University Honors Theses

Ecosystem services are vital to human welfare and society, but often are overlooked when it comes to planning and setting policy. By neglecting to incorporate the benefits received from natural resources, policy makers may unknowingly be making decisions that harm the long term sustainability and use of these services. To highlight the importance of Oregon's ecosystems, the present study aims to provide a full accounting of the ecosystem services and natural capital of the state. Using data from the Institute for Natural Resources' updated Oregon statewide habitat map, Oregon's ecosystems were matched to biome categories from the Ecosystem Services Valuation …

Exploring Nonprofit Views On Water Management And Conservation Strategies, Jillian Marie Farley

Dissertations and Theses

Valuing water resources presents a multitude of methodological and theoretical challenges, including economics, biodiversity, and cultural significance. Information is not readily available on the individuals working every day on water resource management and how they navigate such a complex topic. This project is designed to help all parties better understand the opinions of individuals working for nonprofit organizations and Watershed Councils in the State of Oregon about current methods of water resource conservation. The results reflect respondents’ personal views on the process and practices of valuing water and are designed to prompt deeper discussions between the organizations, communities, and policymakers. …

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Livelihood, Environmental And Health Benefits Of A Large Scale, Christina K. Barstow, Randall Bluffstone, Kyle Silon, Karl Linden, Evan Thomas

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Public health interventions targeting contaminated drinking water and indoor air pollution may help to reduce two of the leading causes of death among children under 5 in Rwanda - diarrhea and pneumonia. These interventions also have the potential to provide economic benefits, including reduction in expenditures on fuelwood and time spent on fuelwood collection, environmental benefits through reductions in deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, and additional economic benefits attributable to health impacts. We evaluate one such large scale intervention, the Tubeho Neza program in Western Rwanda using a cost-benefit analysis. This paper estimates monetized program benefits related to fuelwood savings, …

Special Issue On Climate Change And Land Conservation And Restoration: Advances In Economics Methods And Policies For Adaptation And Mitigation, Sarah Cline, Sahan T.M. Dissanayake

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Climate change will likely impact the ecosystem services and biodiversity generated from conserved land. Land conservation can also play a significant role in achieving cost-effective mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. In this special issue we feature seven papers from the 2017 NAREA Workshop, “Climate Change and Land Conservation and Restoration: Advances in Economics Methods and Policies for Adaptation and Mitigation.” The articles include papers furthering the methodological frontier; portfolio optimization, dynamic rangeland stocking, and global timber harvest models, and those highlighting innovative applications; climate smart agricultural practices in Nigeria and Vietnam, welfare impacts on birding, and carbon and albedo pricing.

Does Collective Action Sequester Carbon? Evidence From The Nepal Community Forestry Program, Randall Bluffstone, Eswaran Somanathan, Prakash Jha, Harisharan Luintel, Rajesh Bista, Mike Toman, Naya Paudel, Bhim Adhikari

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Presumed open access forests have as little as 34% of those under collective action.

• No evidence that Community Forestry Programme forests store more carbon

.• Carbon from collective action not conditional on Community Forestry Programme.

Advancing Rationality With Sustainability: An Analysis Of Agent-Based Simulation, Osman Goktug Tanrikulu

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

Today, falling trends of species and ecosystem in the world due to overconsumption and destruction of natural resources are at critical levels. It is vital for humanity to operate with sustainable and resilient modes of production and consumption. In this regard, this paper examines the basic premise of rationality and introduces sustainability as an advancement to the theoretical concept of rationality. Thus, a rational mindset and a sustainable mindset are compared under depletion of environmental resources. The understanding of rationality in the analysis is based on Garett Hardin’s (1968) ‘the tragedy of the commons’ model, in which actors are self-interested …

The Economic Value Of Forest Park Ecosystem Services: Results Of Five Focus Groups Conducted In Spring 2016, Randall A. Bluffstone, Pablo Barreyro, Jenny Dempsey Stein, Cody Kent, Antonia Machado

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: This initial phase of research lays the foundation for a survey using contingent valuation (CV) and choice experiment (CE) methods. We asked select Portland residents what they care about most in Forest Park, their willingness to pay (WTP) for improving ecosystem services and how they generally think about the value of those goods and services. These results will help us narrow the experimental design of the forthcoming CV/CE study.

Approach: We conducted a focus group in each of Portland’s 5 “quadrants.” We chose each location - Skyline, St. John’s, Cully, Foster-Powell and Hillsdale - based on either its proximity …

Estimating The Recreational Value Of Portland’S Forest Park, Randall Bluffstone, Ryan Burchett, Kahtan Eiwaz, Emma Ingebretsen, Peter Schaffer, Steve Toth, Szeto Yan Weng, Jordan Drinkhouse, Dat Huynh, Charles Maxwell, Joel Schutte, Tiffany Tram, Thananan Yupparit

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using the travel cost method, this study estimates the per-trip value and total annual value of recreational visits to Portland’s Forest Park. Based on the opportunity cost of visitors’ time and the estimated costs of travel, we derive a demand function for visits to Forest Park on the assumption that visitors value their trips to Forest Park at least as highly as the alternative uses of their time and money. The Portland Parks and Recreation Department supplied survey data for 2277 Forest Park visitors, of which we use 1626 observations.

We find that a truncated negative binomial regression best fits …

Plant Response To 14 Engineered Log Jams On The North Fork Toutle River, Wa Sediment Plain, Todd Ashley

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

I sought to evaluate the vegetative response to the installation of the 14 engineered log jams (ELJs) on the North Fork Toutle River (NFTR) Sediment Plain. The NFTR sediment plain is constantly being reworked due to channel bank erosion caused by a combination of processes including flow erosion and gravitational mass failure. Vegetation has the ability to protect the bank from erosion as well as providing other stabilizing effects. The ELJ structures were designed in part to protect localized areas of the sediment plain and allow vegetated islands to develop. The purpose of these vegetated islands is to trap sand …

Ecosystem Services: The Making Of A Metaphor We Live (?) By, Richard B. Norgaard

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

What started as a humble metaphor to help us think about our relation to nature has become integral to how we are addressing the future of humanity and the course of biological evolution. The metaphor of nature as a stock that provides a flow of services is insufficient for the difficulties we are in or the task ahead. Indeed, combined with the mistaken presumption that we can analyze a global problem within a partial equilibrium economic framework and reach a new economy project-by-project without major institutional change, the simplicity of the stock-flow framework blinds us to the complexity of the …

Understanding Sand Mining On The Maha Oya: The Conflict Between Economic And Environmental Survival, Meredith Corea Talbert

Dissertations and Theses

River sand mining from the Maha Oya is the main source of income and a force that drives economic activity for residents along the river. This study takes place in Sri Lanka, there are three villages included in this project: Jambugaswatte, Janituspuraya and Thoppuwa. In Sri Lanka, sand serves as the main building material. It is used to make bricks, tiles, asphalt and concrete, therefore demanding a high market value. However, the over-extraction of sand comes along with significant environmental problems. These communities depend on the river in many ways and the health of the river directly corresponds to the …

A Systems Approach To Ecological Economic Models Developed Progressively In Three Interwoven Articles, Takuro Uehara

Dissertations and Theses

My dissertation develops and analyzes ecological economic models to study the complex dynamics of an ecological economic system (EES) and investigate various conditions and measures which can sustain a developing economy over the long term in view of resilience and sustainability. Because of the intrinsic complexity of the system, I take a systems approach, using economics as the foundation for the basic structure of an ecological economic model, and system dynamics as the method to build and analyze such a complex ecological economic model. Throughout my dissertation, the model developed by Brander and Taylor (1998) is adopted as a baseline …

Lakeview, Oregon: The Little Town That Collaboration Saved, Laura Singer, Emily Rome, Liubov Doerr, Mari Saint Pierre, Dick Townsend, Alexander Freed, Daniel Mcduffee, Greg Nugent, Gretchen Olsen, Kirk Rea, Melissa Long, Ross D. Lamberth, Shelley D. Searle

National Policy Consensus Center Publications

The assessment team was made up of a diverse group - eight undergraduate PSU students, two graduate teaching assistants and one instructor - representing all ages, interests and fields of study. However, one thing everyone had in common was an interest in learning about collaboration and how it might be used to improve the state of Oregon, the nation and even the world. To that end, everyone participating in the Capstone course hoped to enhance their “Skills for Being an Effective Collaborator.” As this is the first time this course has been offered, we hope our success in meeting its …

Interview With Robert Costanza, Institute For Sustainable Solutions, 2011 (Audio), Robert Costanza

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Dr. Robert Costanza by Noah Sharpsteen at Portland State University on February 22nd, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Understanding, Modeling And Valuing Ecosystem Services, Robert Costanza

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Ecosystem services (ES) are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems (in combination with other inputs) to human well-being. An ES-based approach can assess the trade-offs inherent in managing humans embedded in ecological systems. Evaluating trade-offs requires both an understanding of the biophysical magnitudes of ES changes that result from human actions, as well as an understanding of their impact on human well-being, broadly conceived. This talk discusses the state of the art of ES assessment, valuation, and modeling, including the potential of integrated ecological economic modeling. Valuation is about assessing trade-offs – not necessarily about trades (exchanges) in markets …

Interview With Peter Hayes, Hyla Woods, 2006 (Audio), Peter Hayes

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Peter Hayes by Glen Esler on July 28th, 2006.

The interview index is available for download.

"Environmental Simulation And Long-Term Planning", Michael A. Arbib

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

With Cooper, W. Ecosystems.