Ecosystem resilience, i.e. an ecosystem’s ability to maintain its basic functions and controls under disturbances, is often interpreted as insurance: by decreasing the probability of future drops in the provision of ecosystem services, resilience insures risk-averse ecosystem users against potential welfare losses. Using a general and stringent definition of ‘insurance’ and a simple ecological-...

111 We present a computable general equilibrium model of the interface between the Great Salt Lake (GSL) ecosystem and the regional economy that impacts the ecosystem. With respect to the ecosystem, the model treats the various representative species as net-energy maximizers and bases population dynamics on the period-by-period sizes of surplus net energy. Energy markets-where predators and pre...

Although ecosystems provide myriad services to economies, only one service is considered in most renewable-resource models. The general equilibrium bioeconomic model introduced here admits a second service, and more importantly it accounts for how the two services are impacted by interactions within an eight-species ecosystem and interactions within a regional economy. Endangered Steller sea li...

The wetlands of the Gulf Coast region of the United States are under pressure from relative sea level rise and subsidence pressures that threaten to alter fishery breeding grounds and increase expected damage from stochastic storm events, among other issues. Barrier islands, marshes, and swamps are thus forms of natural capital that serve both an intermediate role in supporting fishery stocks, ...

The ecological literature suggests that biodiversity reduces the variance of ecosystem services. Thus, conservative biodiversity management has an insurance value to risk-averse users of ecosystem services. We analyze a conceptual ecological-economic model in which such management measures generate a private benefit and, via ecosystem processes at higher hierarchical levels, a positive external...

Once established, invasive species can rapidly and irreversibly alter ecosystems and degrade the value of ecosystem services. Optimal control of an exotic pest solves for a trajectory of removals that minimizes the present value of removal costs and residual damages from the remaining pest population. The shrubby tree, Miconia calvescens, is used to illustrate dynamic policy options for a fores...

Strong sustainability, according to the common definition, requires that different natural and economic capital stocks have to be maintained as physical quantities separately. Yet, in a world of uncertainty this cannot be guaranteed. To therefore define strong sustainability under uncertainty in an operational manner, we propose to use the concept of viability. Viability means that the differen...

We develop a method of obtaining an asymptotic series of the value function of a stochastic optimal control problem over an unbounded domain with a finite number of irregularity points. These are points of non-differentiability of the value function of the corresponding deterministic problem. We apply singular perturbation methods to obtain the solution approximation in regions of regularity an...

JEL classification: C65 D81 Q23 Q57 This paper provides a review of research contributions on forest management and planning using multicriteria decision making (MCDM) based on an exhaustive literature survey. The review primarily focuses on the application aspects highlighting theoretical underpinnings and controversies. It also examines the nature of the problems addressed and incorporation o...

The threat of invasive species stems from their ability to rapidly and irreversibly change ecosystems and degrade the value of ecosystem services. Optimal control of a pre-established exotic pest minimizes the costs of population reduction plus the residual damages from the remaining pest population. The shrubby tree, Miconia calvescens, is used to illustrate dynamic policy options for a forest...