For coastal professionals seeking to protect the environmental health and economic vitality of their communities, socioeconomic information and data are an invaluable aid.
“For instance, knowing the facts about your community’s population and economic activity can help you craft better plans for coastal hazards, sea level rise, and other impacts of climate change,” says Jeffery Adkins, an economist with the NOAA Coastal Services Center. “In the case of flooding, you won’t just know the specific areas in your community that are vulnerable—you’ll be better informed on the implications of that flooding for the people who live and work and play there.”
The following resources available from the Center can help coastal professionals be better informed by incorporating socioeconomic information into management and decision-making processes.
Coastal County Snapshots – Integrates
social science data, land cover data, and other information to provide county
officials with a local “snapshot” of coastal flooding and ocean and Great Lakes
jobs.
www.csc.noaa.gov/snapshots/
Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) –
Provides information on six economic sectors that depend on the oceans and
Great Lakes. Preliminary ENOW data are online, with finalized data due later in
2011.
www.csc.noaa.gov/enow/
Introduction to Economics for Coastal Managers – Outlines different ways of assigning
economic value to resources and assessing the value of different management approaches.
www.csc.noaa.gov/economics/
Spatial Trends in Coastal Socioeconomics (STICS) –
Uses a map-based interface to display and download demographic and economic characteristics of jurisdictions.
www.marineeconomics.noaa.gov/socioeconomics/
Gross Domestic Product – Supplies gross domestic product data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis in tabular and geospatial formats, providing totals and a breakdown by 64 industries.
www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/gdp/
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages –
From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this resource provides a quarterly count of
employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs.
www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/data/qcew/
To learn more about the Center’s socioeconomic resources, contact Jeffery.Adkins@noaa.gov.
