Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries: What's at Stake.

摘要

The damage and destruction borne by our coasts and estuaries has created more than physical and biological losses for our country. This damage also has diminished the economic productivity of the nation and the economic wellbeing of the millions of Americans who visit, use, and depend on the coast and the goods and services it provides. New efforts to protect restore Americas estuaries and coasts are likely to recapture much of this lost economic value and, in some cases, improve the economic importance of these areas to levels not see in generations. In this book, we examine the economic value of our coasts and estuaries with an eye to understanding the economic benefits of protecting and restoring Americas coasts and estuaries. The economic potential and value of the coast is richer and more complex than most people realize. Coasts and estuaries generate both economic value and economic impactan important subtlety often overlooked in coastal development and planning. Coasts generate goods and services that are consumed through extraction (e.g., seafood); values that are never extracted, such as scenic views; and gases, such as oxygen, that are consumed globally.