Beach Nourishment as a Dynamic Capital Accumulation Problem

Author(s):

Smith, Martin; Slott, Jordan M.; Murray, Brad

Keywords: beach nourishment; optimal rotation; natural capital

Volume/Issue: Working Paper

Page Number(s): 1-37

Year Published: 2007

Abstract:

Beach nourishment is a common coastal management strategy used to combat erosion along sandy coastlines. It involves building out a beach with sand dredged from another location. This paper develops a positive model of beach nourishment and generates testable hypotheses about how the frequency of nourishment responds to property values, project costs, erosion rates, and discounting. By treating the decision to nourish as a dynamic capital accumulation problem, the model produces new insights about coupled economic geomorphological systems. In particular, determining whether the frequency of nourishment increases in response to physical and economic forces depends on whether the decay rate of nourishment sand exceeds the discount rate.

URL: Beach Nourishment

Type of Publication: Book

Sponsors

National Science Foundation (NSF) - The only federal agency whose mission includes support for all fields of fundamental science and engineering, except for medical sciences. We are tasked with keeping the United States at the leading edge of discovery in areas from astronomy to geology to zoology. So, in addition to funding research in the traditional academic areas, the agency also supports "high-risk, high pay-off" ideas, novel collaborations and numerous projects that may seem like science fiction today, but which the public will take for granted tomorrow.

Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University - A center of excellence that integrates ecology with socioeconomics, demography, and other disciplines for ecological sustainability from local, national, to global scales.

Global Land Project - A joint research project for land systems in the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions Programme.

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Beach Nourishment as a Dynamic Capital Accumulation Problem

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