Environmental Policy & Planning Group
The UHERO Environmental & Policy Planning Group partners with government, non-profit, business, and community groups to address Hawaiʻi’s key environmental policy challenges. To do so we employ a diverse set of interdisciplinary methods and tools to study the interconnection between human and natural systems with the purpose of contributing to more effective decision making. We specifically work in the linked areas of water, energy, food systems, watersheds, and coastlines, where an overarching theme is how to mitigate and adapt to land use and climate change and their effects on these systems.
Optimal Public Control of Exotic Species: Preventing the Brown Tree Snake from Invading Hawai‘i
This paper develops a theoretical model for the efficient establishment of economic policy pertaining to invasive species, integrating prevention and control of invasive species into …
Economic impacts of non-indigenous species: Miconia and the Hawaiian economy
Imperfect scientific information regarding potential invasiveness, differences between private and public outcomes for individual decisions regarding planting, and inadequate prevention activity combine to impose costs …
Efficient Water Allocation with Win-Win Conservation Surcharges: The Case of the Ko‘olau Watershed
The one-demand Hotelling model fails to explain the observed specialization of non-renewable resources. We develop a model with multiple demands and resources to show that …
Valuing Indirect Ecosystem Services: the Case of Tropical Watersheds
Mitigating the harmful effects of development projects and industries (negative environmentalism) is inadequate, especially in resource-dependent economies whose resources are at risk from other forces. …
Control of Invasive Species: Lessons from Miconia in Hawai’i
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 …
Prevention, Eradication, and Containment of Invasive Species: Illustrations from Hawaii
Invasive species change ecosystems and the economic services such ecosystems provide. Optimal policy will minimize the expected damages and costs of prevention and control. We …
Mitigating Runoff As Part of an Integrated Strategy for Nearshore Resource Conservation
This report first presents theoretical considerations for integrated resource management of forested watershed and nearshore resources, then estimates current economic benefits from nearshore resources (beaches …
Efficient Groundwater Pricing and Intergenerational Welfare: The Honolulu Case
Optimal water usage and pricing programs discussed in literature tend to take for granted the users’ willing to pay higher efficiency prices in order to …
Environmental Valuation and the Hawaiian Economy
Economic planning and policy analysis are commonly criticized for their failure to properly account for adverse effects of economic development on the environment and other …