Valuing the Coast

It’s common knowledge that people like to live near the water; close to 40% of the US population lives in or near coastal areas. And as we’ve covered in a number of articles in Erosion Control, coastal erosion—and the techniques to counter it—can be very expensive.

A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration highlights the potential costs of not protecting the coasts. NOAA has looked at the rate of growth of the “ocean economy”—the areas and economic sectors bordering the oceans and Great Lakes—and compared it to the country’s overall economic growth. Despite damage from tropical storms, hurricanes, oil spills, and the like, the ocean economy grew more than four times as much as the US economy overall between 2011 and 2012, the most recent years studied. That’s a 10.5% rate of growth—compared to 2.5% for the economy as a whole—or an increase of $22 billion, from $321 billion to $343 billion in gross domestic product. According to NOAA, the ocean economy employed nearly 3 million people, more than crop production, telecommunication, and building construction combined.

It’s common knowledge that people like to live near the water; close to 40% of the US population lives in or near coastal areas. And as we’ve covered in a number of articles in Erosion Control, coastal erosion—and the techniques to counter it—can be very expensive. A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration highlights the potential costs of not protecting the coasts. NOAA has looked at the rate of growth of the “ocean economy”—the areas and economic sectors bordering the oceans and Great Lakes—and compared it to the country’s overall economic growth. Despite damage from tropical storms, hurricanes, oil spills, and the like, the ocean economy grew more than four times as much as the US economy overall between 2011 and 2012, the most recent years studied. That’s a 10.5% rate of growth—compared to 2.5% for the economy as a whole—or an increase of $22 billion, from $321 billion to $343 billion in gross domestic product. According to NOAA, the ocean economy employed nearly 3 million people, more than crop production, telecommunication, and building construction combined. [text_ad] The ocean economy is broken down into six sectors—offshore mineral extraction, coastal marine construction, living resources, ship and boat building, tourism and recreation, and marine transportation. Five of them outpaced national economic growth, offshore mineral extraction leading with a 20.9% increase and 8.6% increase in employment. The states most closely tied to the ocean economy are California and Texas—California with the greatest number of workers, and Texas with the highest ocean-related GDP, mostly from offshore mineral production. Michigan led the Great Lakes states in ocean-related growth. The information comes from NOAA’s Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW), which is available on the Digital Coast website.