Sustainability of the marine aggregate industry: a review of the economic and societal costs and benefits of marine aggregate extraction including impacts on ecosystem goods and services
- Reference:
- 08/P77
- Organisation:
- PML Applications
- Amount Funded:
- £49,375
- Status:
- Complete
The scoping study will improve the understanding of
socio-economic benefits and costs of marine aggregates extraction,
including the effects of extraction on ecosystem goods and
services.
Using existing data, this scoping study will:
Review the economic and societal costs and benefits of
marine aggregate extraction and, in socio-economic terms, the
impacts on ecosystem goods and services.
- Review the sustainability of the marine aggregate industry from
economic, social and ecosystem perspectives.
- Identify the main issues concerning identification of the
benefits and costs of marine aggregate extraction including any
limitations of the available data and the existing research
base;
- Develop a framework strategy to overcome current deficiencies
in data and understanding;
- Make recommendations on the development of a methodology to
incorporate understanding of the costs/benefits and sustainability
of marine aggregate extraction that could be applied to future
licensing applications and marine spatial planning.
This will allow the costs and benefits of aggregate
extraction to be compared with those of other uses of marine
environmental resources and space, such as fishing, renewable
energy installations and undersea cables, and at the same time take
into consideration conservation needs.