SocioEconomics Group Dr' David Yoskowitz

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Socio-Economics Group Dr. David Yoskowitz
Why Economics at HRI?
Ecosystem Services Research colLaboratory (ESRcL)
Current Research Projects
Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Texas
Humans
Nature
Socio-Economics Group
Carlota Santos Research Specialist
Jorge Brenner Post Doctoral Fellow
David Yoskowitz HRI Endowed Research Professor
Source Stern Review, 2007
Source IPCC AR-4, 2007

• Economics is the study of how humankind allocates
  its scarce resources given its unlimited wants.
• The Gulf of Mexico region is a finite resource
  and yet we are asking more of it each passing
  year.
• Increasing populations along the coasts as well
  as inland, climate change, and economic
  uncertainty lead to increased pressure on our
  natural resources.
• Economics provides some of the tools to address
  the issue of conservation and balanced growth.

• Human Health
• Transportation

• Renewable Energy
• Energy Efficiency

Economic Impacts of Height Modernization
Dr. James Gibeaut HRI Endowed Associate
Research Professor
Dr. Paul Montagna HRI Endowed Chair
Batuhan Doganay Research Specialist

• Mapping and GIS analyses
• Flooding and the economic impact

Coastal and Marine Geospatial Laboratory
Ecosystem Studies and Modeling
Socio-Economic Impacts of Sea Level Rise
ESRcL Capabilities

• Ecoinformatics
• Database design
• Web services
• Geospatial analysis
• Mapping
• GIS analyses

• Modeling
• Simulation
• Prediction
• Statistics

• Research
• Data evaluation
• Database creation
• Socio-Economic analysis
• Economic impacts of Nature
• Social impacts of the environment

Socio-Economics Group Short-Term Goals
Ali McKenzie Graduate Student
Source IPCC AR-4, 2007

• Analysis and modeling of sea-level rise
• Economic and demographic data analysis
• Integration of socio-economic activity with
  coastal changes

Future Research Directions
Valuing Nature in Texas With Houston Advanced
Research Center

• Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Information
  Systems
• Hardware, network connections, programming and
  software tools for analysis and visualization of
  socio-economic data.
• Use the internet to make data freely available
  and useful in map-like interfaces.

Integrate economic and natural science research
to enhance coastal decision-making. Train the
next generation of researcher and decision-maker
on how to integrate the social and natural
sciences.

• Develop a Gulf wide network of economists and
  other social scientists.
• Create the Ecosystem Services Valuation Database
  for the Gulf of Mexico.
• Educate policy-makers, business, and the general
  public on the importance of integrating economics
  of the environment into the decision-making
  process.

Carlota Santos Research Specialist
Jorge Brenner Post Doctoral Fellow

• Inventory and value ecosystem services.
• Primary data and meta-analysis.

Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico
Studies