Donna Lee
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Natural Resource and Environmental Management, Department Member
The integrated conceptual ecosystem model (ICEM) for the Florida Keys/Dry Tortugas marine ecosystem (FKDT) organizes existing scientific information in a form relevant to the needs of coastal managers. The concept of ecosystem-based... more
The integrated conceptual ecosystem model (ICEM) for the Florida Keys/Dry Tortugas marine ecosystem (FKDT) organizes existing scientific information in a form relevant to the needs of coastal managers. The concept of ecosystem-based management (EBM) guides the management of coastal resources at regional scales in the US (Lubchenco and Sutley 2010).
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SPEC. COLL. HAS ARCHIVAL COPY; AG. ECON. HAS NON-CIRCULATING COPY; MICRO. ROOM HAS MICROFICHE COPY (2 SHEETS). Thesis (Ph.D.)--U. of Calif., Davis. Typescript. Degree granted in Agricultural Economics.
Piecemeal approaches to river basin development and management may not fully recognize the interactions and interdependence among components of a river basin system. River basin management that focuses on a single water use, on a single... more
Piecemeal approaches to river basin development and management may not fully recognize the interactions and interdependence among components of a river basin system. River basin management that focuses on a single water use, on a single sector, or on the supply to particular segment of the basin population may inadvertently disrupt other sectors of the economy (in time or space). Hence, advocating for a systems approach to river basin development - for models that could help account for a river basin's key components and help address various objectives. The authors review the literature on such economic models, including models that deal with issues of water quality and quantity or with environmental considerations, recreational demand, countrywide planning, and multiple objective planning. Their review may serve as a source of references for those who need to consider whether they can use a model. Readers can evaluate the suitability, advantages, and disadvantages of particular...
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Forest based agricultural systems in the tropics are being opened up to international trade at an unprecedented rate. This is the case of tropical agriculture in Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is also... more
Forest based agricultural systems in the tropics are being opened up to international trade at an unprecedented rate. This is the case of tropical agriculture in Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is also having significant impacts on the decentralized land use decisions of small-scale farmers and on the natural resource base on which they depend. This paper develops a bioeconomic model of a typical forest-land based farming system that is integrated with the non-farm labour sector, as typically found in tropical regions. The data used to generate the simulations were gathered in two communities of Yucatan (Mexico) in 1998-2000. Through a systemdynamics framework, the agro-ecological and farming economic subsystems are integrated and the current situation of price liberalization that is negatively affecting soil capital and income levels is compared to a scenario that precludes an «optimal path to extinction» through careful policy intervention...
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River basins are inherently complex systems comprising many interdependent components. Development activities undertaken without full consideration of the regional, social, environmental, and economic implications can and have had adverse... more
River basins are inherently complex systems comprising many interdependent components. Development activities undertaken without full consideration of the regional, social, environmental, and economic implications can and have had adverse repercussions. Management practices that respond to a single water use, a single population segment, or a single sector have caused inadvertent disruption to other uses, populations, and sectors. This review promotes a systems approach for developing and managing river basins. By including all critical components into a river basin plan, development and management objectives will be better met. To this end, we review integrated economic river basin models covering a wide range of issues, including water quantity and quality, environmental considerations, and conflicts at the sectoral, regional, and international levels. This synopsis characterizes the essential components of economic river basin modeling, provides guidelines for model specifications, and illustrates salient points with key examples from the literature.
Research Interests: Management, Civil Engineering, Water, Kenya, Planning, and 4 moreComplex System, Models, Water Use, and River Basin
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ABSTRACT This paper describes a computer simulation model developed to analyze the economics of shrimp production under different stocking regimes, harvesting schedules, and farm sizes. The operation examined is ‘closed-market’ where all... more
ABSTRACT This paper describes a computer simulation model developed to analyze the economics of shrimp production under different stocking regimes, harvesting schedules, and farm sizes. The operation examined is ‘closed-market’ where all stages of production occur on-site, and the final product, adult shrimp, are sold in the market. The model was parameterized using existing market data and secondary production data collected from experimental units at the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii. Results indicated that a weekly stocking and harvesting regime is more profitable than either a biweekly or 8-week stocking and harvesting regime. Scale economies indicated that the minimum farm size is twenty-six growout ponds and the optimal farm size is 64 growout ponds.
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Subsistence level farming characterizes most of the agricultural production in Western Samoa. In recent years, the Samoan Government has encouraged farmers to increase the production of exportable crops in order to improve the national... more
Subsistence level farming characterizes most of the agricultural production in Western Samoa. In recent years, the Samoan Government has encouraged farmers to increase the production of exportable crops in order to improve the national trade balance. Recent efforts to stimulate export production have had limited success. In Western Samoa, farmers' decisions are heavily influenced by factors that reside outside of
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An invasive species, as defined in 1999 by Presidential Executive Order 13112, is "an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health." Alien or invasive species... more
An invasive species, as defined in 1999 by Presidential Executive Order 13112, is "an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health." Alien or invasive species have affected many, if not most, countries around the world in some way. In some cases, these non-native species have been purposefully introduced for bona fide reasons such as ornamental decoration, erosion control, and livestock forage. In other situations, alien species have been inadvertently introduced. This is occurring more frequently, largely due to increased global travel. Some alien species are introduced and remain rather innocuous over time. However, often times they can cause devastating and irreversible consequences.
The importance of international markets as a source of live, ornamental "fish" supply is growing due to more stringent wild-harvest regulations in Florida. In addition, foreign markets are increasing in importance as a source of... more
The importance of international markets as a source of live, ornamental "fish" supply is growing due to more stringent wild-harvest regulations in Florida. In addition, foreign markets are increasing in importance as a source of demand for Florida purveyors of live, ornamental "fish". Florida plays an important role in this growing international market. Trends in imports and exports of live, ornamental "fish" are described for two primary data sets: U.S. Customs and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These trends are described primarily for the 1994-98 period for Florida and the U.S. Florida imports and exports are described for the two major ports: Miami and Tampa. The most important trading countries are also described. This information will help Florida purveyors of live, ornamental "fish" better understand the international markets upon which they have become more dependent.
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Recently many state and federal agencies in the U.S. have embraced an ecosystems management approach to environmental protection and regulation. This approach requires a high degree of cooperation between natural and social scientists to... more
Recently many state and federal agencies in the U.S. have embraced an ecosystems management approach to environmental protection and regulation. This approach requires a high degree of cooperation between natural and social scientists to translate policy objectives into research hypotheses, models, and evaluation procedures to guide implementation decisions. An adaptive procedure to guide interdisciplinary research is described and illustrated with highlights of recent progress and pitfalls from the restoration initiative for the Everglades/South Florida ecosystem.
Overcapitalization in the U.S. Atlantic Swordfish fishery has led to a proposed limited access system. A bioeconomic programming model was developed to evaluate the propsed program under various assumptions regarding fleet heterogeneity... more
Overcapitalization in the U.S. Atlantic Swordfish fishery has led to a proposed limited access system. A bioeconomic programming model was developed to evaluate the propsed program under various assumptions regarding fleet heterogeneity and composition. Results indicate that regulations based on more realistic assumptions will lead to higher industry profits.
The commercial fishery that primarily targets king mackerel, stone crab, snappers, groupers and spiny lobster in Monroe and Collier counties is one of the most important commercial fisheries in Florida. These species currently face... more
The commercial fishery that primarily targets king mackerel, stone crab, snappers, groupers and spiny lobster in Monroe and Collier counties is one of the most important commercial fisheries in Florida. These species currently face problems of overfishing and/or over capitalization. A dual-based restricted profit function is used to estimate the economic and technical interactions that exist in this multi-species fishery, primarily using own-price and cross-price elasticities of supply. It is found that the production technology does not exhibit input-output separability and nonjointness-in-inputs over all species groups. This result suggests that these key species may be more efficiently managed as a group, rather than with the use of existing single species regulations. Spiny lobster and stone crab, the dominant value species in the fishery, are shown to have very elastic substitution relationships with king mackerel.
Soybean production ranks among the largest agricultural cash crops in the U.S., second only to corn. U.S. soybean production topped 3 billion bushels in 2005 with sales of $17 billion. Approximately 58% of U.S. soybeans are grown in Iowa,... more
Soybean production ranks among the largest agricultural cash crops in the U.S., second only to corn. U.S. soybean production topped 3 billion bushels in 2005 with sales of $17 billion. Approximately 58% of U.S. soybeans are grown in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Nebraska. A small percentage of the U.S. soybean crop, 2%, goes to human consumption in the form of whole beans, soybean oil, and soybean meal products. A third of the crop, 1 billion bushels per year is exported annually to China, EU, Mexico, Japan, and Taiwan, and other countries. Most of the crop, 2 billion bushels, goes to the U.S. livestock industry to feed poultry, hogs, and cattle. Variations in the supply of soybeans thus directly impact livestock production. In recent years, soybean prices have exceeded the $5 per bushel U.S. loan rate fluctuating from $5 to over $7 per bushel. Continued success of this crop is threatened by the introduction of two new invasive species, soybean rust and soybean aphid.
This research develops a multiregional optimal control model that incorporates regional allocation of a public budget for controlling invasive plants when regionally differential recreation demand functions and species control costs are... more
This research develops a multiregional optimal control model that incorporates regional allocation of a public budget for controlling invasive plants when regionally differential recreation demand functions and species control costs are present. Our equimarginal condition for optimal budget allocation equates the relative marginal economic benefits per dollar spent across regions. The model was applied to Florida Public Conservation Land regions, and results indicate that the magnitude of an annual management budget affects its distribution among species management regions, but the size of the intrinsic growth rate does not affect the pattern of budget allocation among regions.
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The invasive aquatic plants Hydrilla verticillata (hydrilla), Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), and Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) have the potential to negatively impact recreational use of Florida lakes if consistent, adequate... more
The invasive aquatic plants Hydrilla verticillata (hydrilla), Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), and Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) have the potential to negatively impact recreational use of Florida lakes if consistent, adequate control expenditures are not made. In the mid-1990's, Florida significantly reduced its spending on invasive aquatic plant control measures, which resulted in a significant increase in needed control expenditures in subsequent years. This paper attempts to formalize a relationship between coverage of these invasive aquatic plants and angler effort on Florida lakes using data on 38 lakes over 20 years. Estimated regression coefficients are used to simulate control alternatives, and expenditure cost-benefit comparisons are made.
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Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) colonization of the eastern United States has resulted in expenditures of tens of millions of dollars spent by consumptive surface water users, in order to mitigate infrastructure impairment caused by... more
Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) colonization of the eastern United States has resulted in expenditures of tens of millions of dollars spent by consumptive surface water users, in order to mitigate infrastructure impairment caused by this invasive species. Analogous to benefit-transfer analysis, a "cost-transfer" approach will be used to obtain general estimates of potential mitigation costs of zebra mussels in an
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The probability of a severe infestation ranges from 2% to 98% depending on investment in monitoring, prevention, and response technology. Given the estimated potential for economic damages, preliminary results indicate that prudent... more
The probability of a severe infestation ranges from 2% to 98% depending on investment in monitoring, prevention, and response technology. Given the estimated potential for economic damages, preliminary results indicate that prudent investment in prevention and early response net a present value net return of $10 million over 20 years.
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We present a bioeconomic model of three invasive aquatic plants (hydrilla, water hyacinth, and water lettuce) in 13 large Florida lakes, and simulate one-year and steady-state impacts of three control scenarios. We estimate that the... more
We present a bioeconomic model of three invasive aquatic plants (hydrilla, water hyacinth, and water lettuce) in 13 large Florida lakes, and simulate one-year and steady-state impacts of three control scenarios. We estimate that the steady-state annual net benefit of invasive plant control is $59.95 million. A one-year increase in control yields steady-state gains of $6.55 million per year, and
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The invasive aquatic plants Hydrilla verticillata (hydrilla), Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), and Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) have the potential to negatively impact recreational use of Florida lakes if consistent, adequate... more
The invasive aquatic plants Hydrilla verticillata (hydrilla), Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), and Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) have the potential to negatively impact recreational use of Florida lakes if consistent, adequate control expenditures are not made. In the mid-1990's, Florida significantly reduced its spending on invasive aquatic plant control measures, which resulted in a significant increase in needed control expenditures in
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Dominant users of Lake Okeechobee water resources are agricultural producers and recreational anglers. These uses will be directly affected, should the lake become infested with zebra mussels. We employ a probabilistic bioeconomic... more
Dominant users of Lake Okeechobee water resources are agricultural producers and recreational anglers. These uses will be directly affected, should the lake become infested with zebra mussels. We employ a probabilistic bioeconomic simulation model to estimate the potential impact of zebra mussels on consumptive water uses, recreational angling, and wetland ecosystem services under alternative public management scenarios. Without public management,
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Soybeans, the second highest cash crop following corn in the U.S., have come under attack by invasive species, the soybean aphid from the North and soybean rust from the South. We estimated the economic losses resulting from soybean aphid... more
Soybeans, the second highest cash crop following corn in the U.S., have come under attack by invasive species, the soybean aphid from the North and soybean rust from the South. We estimated the economic losses resulting from soybean aphid infestation by using a dynamic equilibrium model. Results indicate that, first, the reduction of soybean production resulting from soybean aphid infestation
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We estimated the economic benefits resulting from controlling soybean aphid infestation by using a multi-regional competitive dynamic equilibrium model. Results indicate that the reduction of soybean production resulting from a soybean... more
We estimated the economic benefits resulting from controlling soybean aphid infestation by using a multi-regional competitive dynamic equilibrium model. Results indicate that the reduction of soybean production resulting from a soybean aphid infestation is largely absorbed by reducing soybean exports, due to the higher price elasticity of export demand compared to domestic demand. Producer benefits resulting from controlling soybean aphids would increase by between $949 million and $1.623 billion in ten years under various scenarios. Results also suggest that it is economically more efficient to control soybean aphids when the rate of intrinsic growth is relatively lower, the supply price elasticity of soybean acreage is relatively more elastic, and insecticide treatment costs per acre are lower. However, if the discovery of the gene Rag-1 (TF04048) leads to new cultivars that withstand the soybean aphid, our estimates will overestimate the actual damages. Even so, our analysis demo...
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Dominant users of Lake Okeechobee water resources are agricultural producers and recreational anglers. These uses will be directly affected should the lake become contaminated with zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). Although not yet in... more
Dominant users of Lake Okeechobee water resources are agricultural producers and recreational anglers. These uses will be directly affected should the lake become contaminated with zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). Although not yet in Florida, zebra mussel populations are thriving nearby in Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and West Virginia. This document reports results from a 20-year simulation model on the economic impacts of public investment in prevention and eradication. Without public management, the expected net economic impact from zebra mussels is a loss of $244.1 million over 20 years. Public investment in prevention and eradication will reduce expected damages and generate a net expected gain of $188.7 million.
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This study examines the impact of invasive plants on recreational activities on Floridas coastal, freshwater and upland natural areas using a multi-attribute utility (MAU) model. Six MAU surveys were electronically distributed to Florida... more
This study examines the impact of invasive plants on recreational activities on Floridas coastal, freshwater and upland natural areas using a multi-attribute utility (MAU) model. Six MAU surveys were electronically distributed to Florida residents in early 2007. We specified a conditional Logit model to estimate the relative weights associated with a change in Fees, Invasive Species, Native Animal Species, Native Plant Species, and Facilities. Using Fees as a payment vehicle, we estimate the average Florida residents marginal willingness to pay for changes to attributes, including having fewer invasive plants and more positive attributes such as facilities and the presence of native animal and plant species. Florida residents have a marginal willingness to pay to reduce invasive plant species between $5.81 7.15, which is higher than their willingness to pay to improve park facilities or increase the abundance of native plants or animals.
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ABSTRACT This research presents a competitive dynamic model that endogenously evaluates the economics of regulatory tax-policy options. This model is then applied to an irrigated corn production area west of Kearney, Nebraska, where the... more
ABSTRACT This research presents a competitive dynamic model that endogenously evaluates the economics of regulatory tax-policy options. This model is then applied to an irrigated corn production area west of Kearney, Nebraska, where the average groundwater contamination level from nitrates is reported to be 8.7 parts per million (ppm). Results indicate that no regulatory policies are necessary for maintaining potable groundwater quality with either a surge-flow irrigation system or a sprinkler irrigation system. In areas where conventional furrow irrigation technology is being used, higher net economic benefits result from the adoption of a variable-tax on nitrogen fertilizer use, followed by a constant-unit tax and a pollution tax.
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The degradation of the unique wetland ecosystem of the Everglades can be characterized as a nonpoint-source pollution (NSP) problem that has a large number of emitters. A significant proportion of these emitters is from the farming... more
The degradation of the unique wetland ecosystem of the Everglades can be characterized as a nonpoint-source pollution (NSP) problem that has a large number of emitters. A significant proportion of these emitters is from the farming enterprises located in the Everglades’ Agricultural Area (EAA) of South Florida. Under plans to restore the ecosystem of the Everglades, phosphorus concentrations in water