Скачать или смотреть Measuring Ecosystem Performance across Multiple Dimensions using Index Numbers

Presenter: John Walden, Economist, Northeast Fisheries Science Center

Summary: Marine ecosystems provide many outputs that benefit humans, and managers often use several indicators to evaluate an ecosystem’s status. However, this leaves an unresolved question of which outputs, or environmental conditions, matter most? We circumvent the problem by developing composite indices with endogenous weights, collapsing multiple outputs and environmental conditions into two indices based on historical performance. This is accomplished using Data Envelopment Analysis, a linear programming technique, and applied to a U.S. ecoregion. Results show that the indices can identify changes in ecosystem performance over a 22 year period.

Keywords: Ecosystems, Index Numbers, Data Envelopment Analysis

Bio: John Walden is an economist at the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he leads the fisheries performance measures working group. His research interests focus on evaluating economic performance using math programming models for both commercial fishing fleets and ecosystems. Past efforts he led include the National Marine Fisheries Service’s measurement of U.S. commercial fishing capacity, and a follow-up study to measure fishing vessel productivity.