R-12-07 Decision support for the economic analysis of trade-offs in coastal and marine spatial planning for the US Northeast

Porter Hoagland
Senior Research Specialist
Marine Policy Center
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, MA
508.289.2867
Email Porter Hoagland

The Northeast Regional Ocean Council’s framework for coastal and marine spatial planning, in accordance with the National Ocean Policy, requires tradeoff analyses of different spatial marine use scenarios for a given region. How do communities decide which ocean user to favor where? What are the costs and benefits of various spatial planning arrangements?

Such analyses incorporate ecological, social, and economic data; descriptions of ecosystem populations and flows; and existing and potential human uses. Hoagland’s team will adapt regional economic impact models of the northeast coastal economy to assess changes in the spatial and temporal distribution of human uses and activities in the Northeast. The models will then be adapted to three case studies: spatial fisheries management in the Gulf of Maine, wind power siting in the Gulf of Maine, and wind power siting off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Northeast Sea Grant Consortium Regional Project; total Maine Sea Grant funds $25,846