News for: Socio-economic Marine Research Unit

Whitaker Institute member Dr Tom McDermott, of SEMRU, has written an article for RTÉ Brainstorm. The piece looks at research on whether people would purchase homes with a flooding risk and the discount they would expect for doing so. Would you buy a house with a 10% chance of flooding every year? Analysis: research has… | Read on »

The global population is urbanising rapidly. Each year, cities around the world host tens of millions of new inhabitants, particularly in low and middle income countries. While traditionally urbanisation has been associated with a process of structural change and economic development, today many poor countries are urbanising faster and at a much earlier stage of… | Read on »

On 17 November, the Whitaker Institute hosted a live webinar Sustainable Marine Tourism Trail Development – An Irish Perspective. The webinar discussed the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW), Ireland’s first long-distance coastal touring route, covering over 2,500 km along the West coast of Ireland. Launched in 2014 by Fáilte Ireland, the goal of the WAW is to further… | Read on »

Ecological restoration is now regarded as an important management tool to reverse the degradation of many marine ecosystems. The United Nation has launched a new initiative entitled the “Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)” that aims to halt further degradation and to accelerate existing restoration efforts for land, aquatic, and marine ecosystems. The need for restoration… | Read on »

Blue-green infrastructure (BGI) is becoming a more popular means of dealing with climate change and climate change-related events. The idea behind BGI is to use natural or semi-natural infrastructure to reduce the risk of harmful natural events in a manner that also delivers additional ecosystem services to a wide range of individuals. As the concept… | Read on »

Ecosystem restoration implies policies that focus on remediating environmental degradation. In this research, the welfare impacts of restoring Norwegian kelp forests to areas where they once were dominant but which now lie barren are estimated using the discrete choice modelling approach. The research also examined if direct contact with the marine environment through recreation influences… | Read on »

Globally, direct and indirect human impacts have led to the widespread degradation of marine ecosystems. The resulting loss of habitat and marine biodiversity has led to increased impetus for marine ecosystem restoration at a policy level. Restoration success is judged on ecological outcomes but with limited resources, the magnitude of the societal benefits achieved is… | Read on »

Flood reduction infrastructure is a vital aspect of many urban and peri-urban areas.  To date, the majority of flood reduction projects use traditional “grey” materials and techniques. However, the use of blue-green infrastructure (BGI) such as, restoration of floodplains or wetlands and bioswales are becoming more popular. The move towards BGI is, in part, due… | Read on »

Reports by the Whitaker Institute’s Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit (SEMRU) which inform the government’s Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth strategy, show growth in the marine sector and economic potential for coastal regions in relation to domestic tourism. Read more in marine.ie and afloat.ie To read the report, click here.

For sustainable development to be meaningful, it must be achievable and measurable by some reasonably clear metric or metrics. Economists have long recognised that the System of National Accounting aggregates fail to properly measure human well-being. Complements and perhaps alternatives to indicators such as Gross National Income are required. However, the development of sustainability indicators… | Read on »