Conduct ESE Interpretive Analyses

Subtask Description:
Scope of Economic Component model: results, limits, opportunities for sustainable development.

Action points of the implementation:
Each of the ESE component models need to be fully checked to ensure that they represent the part of the system that they are designed to represent. A series of runs will be carried out on each of the component models to identify any problems prior to their inclusion in the full simulation model. These analyses and descriptions interpret the simulation results of the EC model and its objectives.

Result: Documentation showing the interpretive analysis of the economic component model.

Area:
Mar Piccolo, Taranto, Italy

Policy Issue:
Sustainable use of the Mar Piccolo resources in order to include mussel culture.

Human Activities:
Urban and industrial activity, mussel culture, urbanization, shipping, maritime transport.

General Information:
The area has many conflicting activities but, in addition, has always been one of the most important mussels farming areas in the country. In particular, fishing, distribution, catering, tourism, transport, import and export are activities directly connected to aquaculture, which in turn bring economic improvement and therefore a greater social welfare. However, external factors, such as social problems or illegal aquaculture plants that over-exploit the existing natural resources, are causing damage to the ecosystem. During recent years, data from the local market evidenced quantity and quality reduction of the harvested mussels. The major stakeholder concerns are connected to the sustainable development and welfare of the activity.

Example of Implementation:
“Evaluating the environmental conditions controlling mussel growth: To what extent would optimal environmental conditions reduce the costs of mussel culture and increase socio-economic benefits?”. This scenario requires a direct coupling with mussel production, which is then converted to monetary values. Here, for example, two areas for economic valuation are directly implied:

1) The possibility of improved environmental conditions (e.g. different phytoplankton speciation) would allow the mussel farmer to reduce his costs for importing juveniles and to improve the quality of his mussels. This analysis is strictly linked to the simulation of the natural system through the simulation of how a modification in the food supplied by the ecosystem changes the quantity or quality of the mussel production. The costs of these modifications would have to be evaluated. Economic analysis is required to assess the management strategies of the mussel culture.

2) Lowering production costs could affect the social benefits of employees and the local economy. This analysis uses the output of the natural system to determine the income, and it is only indirectly linked to the natural system. It is mostly concerned with evaluating the options management strategies of the distributing the income.

Comments:
Scope and Limitations of theimplementation: For the first SAF applications, we are necessarily limiting the scope of the economic valuation (see discussion above on “scaling” in Introduction under Implementation). The example of economic assessment chosen for simulation analysis must be limited to the virtual system and treat one or more of its scenarios. This is partially pre-determined in the expression of the scenarios.

Contact: Carmela Caroppo, Carmela.Caroppo@iamc.cnr.it