Assessing the Costs of Priority HISC Species in Hawaii
Over the past decade, funding for the Hawaii Invasive Species Council (HISC) has ranged from less than $2 million per year in the three years following the recent economic downturn, up to almost $6 million in FY2015. The HISC website provides total award amounts for past projects, but it is difficult to attribute exact dollar […]
Read MoreRecent Trends in Hawaii’s Green Economy: Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resource Management
This report provides an update to the 2012 “Foundations for Hawai‘i’s Green Economy: Economic Trends in Hawai‘i Agriculture, Energy, and Natural Resource Management.” Although economic information has long been collected for many sectors in Hawai‘i, including agriculture and energy, the 2012 project was the first to collect indicators specifically for the natural resource management (NRM) […]
Read MoreMethods of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus
This paper focuses on a collection of methods that can be used to analyze the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. We classify these methods as qualitative or quantitative for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approaches. The methods for interdisciplinary research approaches can be used to unify a collection of related variables, visualize the research problem, evaluate the issue, […]
Read MoreAssessing the potential for food and energy self-sufficiency on the island of Kauai, Hawaii
Food and energy security are major concerns in the Pacific and around the world. They are key planning priorities in Food and energy security are major concerns in the Pacific and around the world. They are key planning priorities in the state of Hawai‘i as well. Approximately 90% of energy and food resources are imported […]
Read MorePayments for Watershed Services as Adaptation to Climate Change: Upstream Conservation and Downstream Aquifer Management
Economically optimal groundwater extraction allocates water over space and time to its highest and best social use. But optimal management of water resources also requires optimal investment in watershed capital, even as the climate is changing. We augment a standard coastal groundwater management model with stock-dependent extraction costs to include recharge-enhancing natural and produced capital […]
Read MoreBenefit-Cost Analysis of Watershed Conservation
The objectives of this report are (1) to review studies that estimate the relationship between watershed conservation activities and groundwater recharge in Hawai‘i and (2) to estimate the volume of freshwater yield saved per dollar invested in conservation at several sites on Hawai‘i Island. We conclude from the literature review that more work should be […]
Read MoreBenefits and Costs of Implementing the IAPMO Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code Supplement in Hawaii
We calculate the benefits and costs of implementing the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) 2012 Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code Supplement (GPMC) for various building types in Hawaii, with particular emphasis on water-use efficiency provisions in the code. Benefits of the GPMC are measured as water savings, where baseline usage is estimated […]
Read MoreEnergy, Backstop Endogeneity, and the Optimal Use of Groundwater
To meet the growing demand for freshwater, many regions have increased groundwater pumping in recent years, resulting in declining groundwater levels worldwide. A promising development to address these declines is technical change regarding groundwater substitutes such as desalination and wastewater recycling. However, because these technologies are energy intensive, optimal implementation also depends on future energy […]
Read MoreQuantifying Household Social Resilience: A Place-based Approach in a Rapidly Transforming Community
In an era of ecological degradation, global climate change, demographic shifts and increasing intensity and frequency of natural hazards, the Pacific Islands including the State of Hawai‘i face heightened risk. Human and environmental well-being are tightly coupled; thus, science-based solutions must marry place-based, culturally relevant processes that link disaster preparedness, relief and recovery with resilience […]
Read MoreIntergenerational equity with individual impatience in a model of optimal and sustainable growth
Among the ethical objections to intergenerational impartiality is the violation of consumer sovereignty given that individuals are impatient. We accommodate that concern by distinguishing intra- and inter-generational discounting in an overlapping generations model suitable for analyzing sustainability issues.
Read MorePURPA and the Impact of Existing Avoided Cost Contracts on Hawai’i’s Electricity Sector
The United States has been trying to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuel since the 1970s. Domestic fossil fuel supply initially peaked in 1970, and the oil crises of 1973 and 1979 accelerated domestic policy and investments to develop renewable sources of energy (Joskow, 1997). One such policy—passed in 1978 by the U.S. Congress—was […]
Read MorePublication: Optimal groundwater management when recharge is declining: a method for valuing the recharge benefits of watershed conservation
Demand for water will continue to increase as per capita income rises and the population grows, and climate change can exacerbate the problem through changes in precipitation patterns and quantities, evapotranspiration, and land cover—all of which directly or indirectly affect the amount of water that ultimately infiltrates back into groundwater aquifers. We develop a dynamic […]
Read MoreA dynamic approach to PES pricing and finance of interlinked ecosystem services: Watershed conservation and groundwater management
A theory of payment for ecosystem services (PES) pricing consistent with dynamic efficiency and sustainable income requires optimized shadow prices. Since ecosystem services are generally interdependent, this requires joint optimization across multiple resource stocks. We develop such a theory in the context of watershed conservation and groundwater extraction.
Read MoreFoundations for Hawai‘i’s Green Economy: Economic Trends in Hawai‘i Agriculture, Energy, and Natural Resource Management
This report provides the first comparison of standard economic indicators for three sectors that are key to future sustainability in Hawai‘i: renewable energy, agriculture, and natural resource management.
Read MoreSpecies Invasion as Catastrophe: The Case of the Brown Tree Snake
This paper develops a two-stage model for the optimal management of a potential invasive species. The arrival of an invasive species is modeled as an irreversible event with an uncertain arrival time. The model is solved in two stages, beginning with the post-invasion stage. Once the arrival occurs, the optimal path of species removal is […]
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