Economics of Coastal and Water Resources: Valuing Environmental Functions

This text examines in detail the resource management problems and challenges posed by the intensification of the environmental change process in coastal areas around the globe. The analysis deployed is by and large buttressed by methods and techniques drawn from social science disciplines: economics, geography, and psychology. However, the overall approach adopted is multidisciplinary with additional contributions from the natural sciences and statistics. The key concept developed is that of ecosystem function value diversity and its management policy analogue, ecosystem integrity maintenance, and the consequent sustainable utilization of coastal system assets. The functioning of healthy ecosystems generates a range of outputs which society values. The individual chapters analyze and evaluate a range of coastal and water resource functions across different temporal and spatial scales.