Valuing Coastal Natural Capital in a Bioeconomic Framework

The wetlands of the Gulf Coast region of the United States are under pressure from relative sea level rise and subsidence pressures that threaten to alter fishery breeding grounds and increase expected damage from stochastic storm events, among other issues. Barrier islands, marshes, and swamps are thus forms of natural capital that serve an intermediate role in supporting fishery stocks, as well as a final demand role in providing direct protection to infrastructure. In order to make good policy choices related to land loss, the values associated with these interacting stocks must be estimated. In this paper, the numerical approach of Fenichel and Abbott (2014) is extended as a proof of concept in order to illustrate the valuation of fish and wetlands stocks, allowing for the recovery of final demand and intermediate service values, and taking into account the scarcity value of each resource. Examples of policies which, when implemented, will change the subsequent valuation of each resource are also presented.