Oceanography The Official Magazine of
The Oceanography Society
Volume 22 Issue 02

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Volume 22, No. 2
Pages 44 - 49

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Economic Considerations in the Design of Ocean Observing Systems

By Hauke L. Kite-Powell  
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Article Abstract

Recent work on the potential economic value of improved coastal ocean observing capabilities suggests that aggregate values of better ocean observing system information for all US waters could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This aggregate value derives from specific information delivered to particular user groups in particular regions; the scale of benefits depends on the economic importance of the user sectors and on their ability to make use of better information about local and regional marine conditions. As we continue to refine these estimates of economic value, information on benefits is becoming sufficiently specific to be useful in the observing system design process. This paper describes a National Oceanographic Partnership Program study on the economics of ocean observing system information, presents a framework for incorporating economic information into observing system design, and sketches the beginning of an application of this process to the northeast region of the United States.

Citation

Kite-Powell, H.L. 2009. Economic considerations in the design of ocean observing systems. Oceanography 22(2):44–49, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2009.37.

References
    Adams, R., M. Brown, C. Colgan, N. Flemming, H. Kite-Powell, B. McCarl, J. Mjelde, A. Solow, T. Teisberg, and R. Weiher. 2000. The Economics of Sustained Ocean Observation: Benefits and Rationale for Public Funding. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Office of Naval Research, Washington, DC. Available online at: http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/worldsummit/pdfs/isoos.pdf (accessed April 25, 2009).
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Copyright & Usage

This is an open access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format as long as users cite the materials appropriately, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate the changes that were made to the original content. Images, animations, videos, or other third-party material used in articles are included in the Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If the material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission directly from the license holder to reproduce the material.