Coastal Services Center

Helping Manage Competing Demands for Coastal Resources

Managing coastal resources often means making hard decisions about the best way to use those resources-especially when there are competing demands. Although there is no simple way to do this, economic methods can help coastal resource managers make better-informed decisions about managing the resource.

This document provides information about how economics can be applied to coastal resource management by

• Describing different ways of assigning value to resources
• Discussing a few methods for comparing and assessing different management alternatives
• Providing several case studies that show how economic methods were applied to coastal resource management in real-life situations

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Additional Assistance and Information

Coastal and Ocean Economics Publications

Technical Assistance
The NOAA Coastal Services Center offers economic expertise and advice on a wide variety of issues. Services include assistance in interpreting results in economic studies to guidance in designing a study or writing a proposal for economic work under contract.