Social and Economic Analysis

Effective environmental management requires integrating scientific information into complex decision making processes.

Ecological impacts of drought have been rarely considered compared to agricultural or municipal water supply effects.

Understanding potential changes in ecological, social, and climate systems can help managers and decision makers take actions to ensure that natural landscapes and human communities remain healthy and are able to provide essential ecosystem services now and in the future.

Department of the Interior programs and activities generate and support jobs and business activity in local economies.

Fort Collins Science Center Economists support numerous web applications that convey information and data to specific audiences. An important aspect of many of these tools is to connect practitioners and other stakeholders to resources.

The science conducted across the USGS affects the well-being of hundreds of millions of Americans. However, it is challenging to quantify the value of this science, and better understanding and communication of this value is often needed.

From the benefits of tourism and hunting, to the protection of rare and endangered species, economics can play an important role in understanding humans’ relationship with wildlife.

Beyond the impacts to jobs and business activities, economics can play an important role in understanding the return on project investments by studying the benefits of project outcomes to society.

In managing invasive species, land managers and policy makers need information to help allocate scarce resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Planning and managing recreation areas is a series of choices, and not a day goes by that that manager doesn’t face a question, which at its roots, is often economic.

In recent decades, wildfires have increased in size and intensity, and the fire season has lengthened. This and other factors have increased wildfire suppression costs and risks to human health and safety. SEA economists investigate numerous aspects of wildland fire, its impacts, and how to mitigate the risk wildfire poses to people, resources, and property.

Water is associated with numerous ecosystem services, including clean water for drinking, support for outdoor recreation, provision for other ecosystem processes, and direct cultural values.