Special Issue on the Economics of Changing Coastal Resources: The Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems.

Authors:

Abstract
Viewed through the perspective of the nexus of food, energy, and water systems, improved management of coastal resources requires enhanced understanding of cross-system and cross-scale interactions and dynamics. The economics of changing coastal resources hinges on increased understanding of complex tradeoffs associated with these complex multisystem and multiscale relationships. How diverse forms of change will affect water quantity and quality as well as food and energy production in coastal areas is not well understood. Coastal resources provide many goods and services and influence markedly the nature of many human communities. In 2010, 43 percent of the US population lived in marine coastal counties (US Census 2012), and from 1960 to 2010, the population of these counties increased by 87 percent, faster than the rest of the United States (62 percent). In addition to serving as attractive settlement locations, coastal areas provide critical ecosystem services, including critical habitat for commercially important species in some cases (Gutman 2007, Kroll et al. 2012, Hales et al. 2014). Abundant natural resource amenities also provide valuable recreation and tourism experiences (Hales et al. 2014). Further, new economic opportunities also exist in coastal areas, with many recent examples of emerging products (Barros et al. 2009), innovative seafood technologies (Ayer and Tyedmers 2009, Bugallo et al.