Emily J Pindilli, Ph.D.
Biography
Emily Pindilli is the lead for the Natural Resource Economics theme at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Science and Decisions Center in Reston, Virginia. Dr. Pindilli has nearly fifteen years of experience specializing in economic and policy analysis to support energy and environmental projects. Since joining USGS in 2012, she focuses on a diverse portfolio of environmental and informational economics research topics including: the value of scientific data; ecosystem services assessment and valuation; methods to integrate multi-disciplinary analyses to support land use decision-making; lifecycle analyses of resource development and conservation; and environmental markets. Dr. Pindilli is highly interested in innovative approaches to non-market valuation and using economics as a framework to conduct integrated analyses.
Recently, Dr. Pindilli completed a primer on biodiversity and habitat markets (see here). She is currently pursuing research on quantification tools and enabling information to support biodiversity and habitat markets. Dr. Pindilli has ongoing work looking at the value of the USGS streamgage network. This includes considering the users and benefits of streamflow information for engineering, recreation, and water consumption. She is the leading economist on a project assessing the ecosystem services and values associated with the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge which includes the analysis of recreation, carbon sequestration, wildfire mitigation, and flood avoidance (see here). She is conducting similar work at the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. She is a co-PI for a study on the Chesapeake Bay watershed focusing on floodplain ecosystem services and recently initiated similar work for the Delaware River Watershed. She is working with other USGS scientists to advance the development of the Multi-Resource Analysis. Dr. Pindilli's graduate research included an economic analysis of the costs of agricultural best management practices and the potential for nutrient trading in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (see here). Her work is focused on integrated ecologic-economic analyses and incorporating the social and earth sciences into decision-making.
Prior to joining USGS, Dr. Pindilli conducted simillar work in the private sector. She spent a number of years focused on conventional and unconventional energy development, economics, and environmental impacts including the evaluation of U.S. reliance on oil imports, compatibility of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and policy analysis of oil shale and other unconventional fuels. Dr. Pindilli provided economic and environmental science analytical support for the Interagency Task Force on Strategic Unconventional Fuels. She also worked on projects related to the sustainability of biofuels, solar and wind power generation issues, and shale gas regulatory issues. Dr. Pindilli later focued on transportation related issues including a benefit-cost analysis for the DOT Intelligent Transportation Systems AERIS Program to evaluate the potential environmental benefits of connected vehicle applications (see here). Dr. Pindilli also conducted an alternative and cost-benefit analysis of USGS’s moderate resolution geospatial data program (Landsat).
EDUCATION:
PhD Environmental Policy; Environmental Economics focus
George Mason University, Fairfax VA
MS Environmental Science and Policy
George Mason University, Fairfax VA
BA Economics
James Madison University, Harrisonburg VA
Science and Products
Quantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed
Floodplain and wetland areas provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. The loss of floodplain functionality due to land use conversion and degradation reduces the provisioning of these services. Assessing, quantifying, and valuing floodplain ecosystem services provide a framework to estimate how floodplain...
Trends in biodiversity and habitat quantification tools used for market‐based conservation in the United States
Market-based conservation mechanisms are designed to facilitate conservation and mitigation actions for habitat and biodiversity. Their potential is partly hindered, however, by issues surrounding the quantification tools used to assess habitat quality and functionality. Specifically, a lack of transparency and standardization in tool...
Chiavacci, Scott J.; Pindilli, Emily J.
Demonstrating the value of Earth observations—methods, practical applications, and solutions—group on Earth observations side event proceedings
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European Association for Remote Sensing Companies, and the European Space Agency in coordination with the GEOValue Community hosted a side event to the Group on Earth Observations Plenary on October 23–24, 2017, in Washington, D.C. The workshop,...
Pearlman, Francoise; Lawrence, Collin B.; Pindilli, Emily J.; Geppi, Denna; Shapiro, Carl D.; Grasso, Monica; Pearlman, Jay; Adkins, Jeffery; Sawyer, Geoff; Tassa, Alessandra
The Mississippi Alluvial Plain aquifers—An engine for economic activity
U.S. Geological Survey science supports groundwater resource management in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain region. The USGS Science and Decisions Center is working with the Water Availability and Use Science Program to integrate economics into a sophisticated model of groundwater in the region. The model will quantify the status of the groundwater...
Alhassan, Mustapha; Lawrence, Collin B.; Richardson, Steven; Pindilli, Emily J. Valuation of the flood attenuation ecosystem service in Difficult Run, VA, USA
Floodplains and riparian wetlands provide several ecosystem services that directly benefit people. We present a methodology for valuing the flood attenuation ecosystem service in Difficult Run, a suburban watershed with extensive natural floodplains in northern Virginia. High-resolution lidar-derived data were...
Lawrence, Collin B.; Pindilli, Emily J.; Hogan, Dianna M. Estimating the societal benefits of carbon dioxide sequestration through peatland restoration
The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GDS) is a forested peatland that provides a number of ecosystem services including carbon (C) sequestration. We modeled and analyzed the potential capacity of the GDS to sequester C under four management scenarios: no management, no management with catastrophic fire, current management, and...
Pindilli, Emily J.; Sleeter, Rachel; Hogan, Dianna M. Chapter 13: Terrestrial wetlands
1. The assessment of terrestrial wetland carbon stocks has improved greatly since the First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (CCSP 2007) because of recent national inventories and the development of a U.S. soils database. Terrestrial wetlands in North America encompass an estimated 2.2 million km2, which constitutes about 37% of the global wetland...
Kolka, Randall; Trettin, Carl; Tang, Wenwu; Krauss, Ken W.; Bansal, Sheel; Drexler, Judith Z.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Chimner, Rodney A.; Hogan, Dianna M.; Pindilli, Emily J.; Benscoter, Brian; Tangen, Brian A.; Kane, Evan S.; Bridgham, Scott D.; Richardson, Curtis J.
Multi-Resource Analysis—Methodology and synthesis
This document introduces the Multi-Resource Analysis (MRA), a set of products that are being designed to integrate information on multiple natural resources in a region, combine that information with models of resource interrelationships and scenarios of change, and provide meaningful insights on the implications of those...
Jenni, Karen E.; Pindilli, Emily J.; Bernknopf, Richard; Nieman, Timothy L.; Shapiro, Carl
A database of biodiversity and habitat quantification tools used in market-based conservation
Market-based conservation uses economic incentives to leverage market forces in ways that encourage and improve efficiency in the restoration, enhancement, and preservation of species and habitats. Biodiversity and habitat quantification tools are vital to the operation of this conservation strategy, as they are used to measure the quality and...
Chiavacci, Scott J.; Pindilli, Emily J. A method to quantify and value floodplain sediment and nutrient retention ecosystem services
Floodplains provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining floodwaters, sediments, and nutrients. The dynamic nature of floodplains is such that these areas can both accumulate sediment and nutrients through deposition, and export material downstream through erosion. Therefore, estimating floodplain sediment...
Hopkins, Kristina G.; Noe, Gregory B.; Franco, Fabiano; Pindilli, Emily J.; Gordon, Stephanie; Metes, Marina J.; Claggett, Peter; Gellis, Allen; Hupp, Cliff R.; Hogan, Dianna M.
Supporting natural resource management—The role of economics at the Department of the Interior—A workshop report
The first U.S. Department of the Interior Economics Workshop was held April 5–7, 2017 in Washington, D.C., to identify, highlight, and better understand needs and opportunities for economic analysis to support the Department of the Interior’s mission. The Economics Workshop, jointly convened by the Department of the Interior Office of Policy...
Pindilli, Emily J.; Crowley, Christian S.L.; Cline, Sarah A.; Good, Anthony J.; Shapiro, Carl D.; Simon, Benjamin M. Benefits of the fire mitigation ecosystem service in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia, USA
The Great Dismal Swamp (GDS) National Wildlife Refuge delivers multiple ecosystem services, including air quality and human health via fire mitigation. Our analysis estimates benefits of this service through its potential to reduce catastrophic wildfire related impacts on the health of nearby human populations. We used a combination of high-...
Parthum, Bryan M.; Pindilli, Emily J.; Hogan, Dianna M.
Biodiversity and Habitat Markets—Policy, Economic, and Ecological implications of Market-Based Conservation
This report is a primer on market-like and market-based mechanisms designed to conserve biodiversity and habitat. The types of markets and market-based approaches that were implemented or are emerging to benefit biodiversity and habitat in the United States are examined. The central approaches considered in this report include payments for...
Pindilli, Emily J.; Casey, Frank