HR: 17:45h
AN: PA24A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: The Role of Earth Observations in "Valuing" Resources and the Environment
AU: * Macauley, M
EM: macauley@rff.org
AF: Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, United States
AB: A wide range of decisionmakers and analysts, including government and industry resource managers, financial lenders and insurers, ecologists, conservationists, and economists have long struggled with how to ascribe "value" to environmental resources. Despite other differences among these experts, all agree that accurate measures of the physical status of resources are essential as a basis for valuation. Earth observations from space offer some of these measures and as a result, are becoming an essential component of valuation-oriented resource management. This paper illustrates the use of earth observations in two growing applications: payments for environmental services and index insurance for livestock and agriculture. These applications are taking place both in the United States and in an increasing number of other countries. The paper also highlights issues of concern about these uses of earth observations, including short- and long-term availability of data and quality of data. These concerns call into question the viability of building valuation approaches upon a mere assumption of data supply.
DE: 6300 POLICY SCIENCES (7964)
DE: 6304 Benefit-cost analysis
DE: 6600 PUBLIC ISSUES
SC: Public Affairs [PA]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting