New Ohio Sea Grant Project Helps Determine Lake Erie’s Value to Its Residents

For some things, it’s easy to define their value: a pair of jeans or a pizza is worth whatever someone has paid for them. But for others, like a pristine beach or a great fishing spot, worth is much harder to define. In one of the research projects recently funded by Ohio Sea Grant, scientists and economists from Ohio State University will develop an economic model that does just that, to help policy makers decide which conservation practices will raise the value of the Lake Erie ecosystem to its residents and visitors.

Dr. Elena Irwin and doctoral student Wendong Zhang of Ohio State University’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental & Development Economics (AEDE) are planning to develop an economic framework that will assign dollar values to ecosystem services – “the benefits that nature provides to humans,” according to Irwin – when negative events like harmful algal blooms are reduced or eliminated.