Research in Policy Studies

• Goals
• Accomplishments

Coordinator: Richard C. Bishop, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program's tradition of research includes a strong social sciences dimension, focusing on research that helps solve current and potential public policy problems related to Great Lakes and ocean resources.

Projects in the policy studies subprogram reflect the program's overall goals of identifying problem areas, exploring policy options and providing better information to resource managers, planners and the public. To a large degree, policy studies must be reactive because they address policy issues as they evolve.

 

The long-range goals of the Policy Studies Subprogram are to:

• Provide analysis of Great Lakes and ocean policy issues through a broad range of social science research projects

• Foster links across disciplinary lines and with agency personnel in support of science-based marine and Great Lakes policies

 

Research priorities and emerging issues in the Policy Studies Subprogram include:

• Economic, legal and other social policy studies on issues relevant to work within other UW Sea Grant subprograms, including but not limited to:
  • analyses of alternative remediation strategies for Wisconsin Areas of Concern and other degraded Great Lakes ecosystems (see Living Resources, Estuarine & Coastal Processes and Microcontaminants & Water Quality subprograms)
  • comparative cost:benefit analyses of the present hatchery-supported, put-and-take salmonid sport fishery versus the long-range goal of a naturally reproducing fishery (see Living Resources subprogram)
  • implications of tightening regulations for the commercial seafood industry, and possible industry responses (see Living Resources and Aquaculture & Seafood Technology subprograms)

• Development and validation of new techniques for assessing the economic benefits of Great Lakes resources

• Valuation, ownership and stewardship of fresh water

• Economic and social issues in coastal community development

• Benefits, costs and social impacts of contaminated sediment remediation

• Human dimensions of marine and Great Lakes recreation

• Legal, economic, social and other policy issues associated with marine biotechnology

• Policies to foster and support sustainable development of coastal, Great Lakes and ocean resources

• Innovative methods to cope with environmental uncertainty (e.g., lake level changes and invasions of nonindigenous species)

• Development of effective strategies, including risk communications, to deal with changing risks from contaminants in fish

• Economic and legal aspects of natural resource damage assessments for injuries to coastal, Great Lakes, and ocean resources from releases of toxins and oil

• Transferable discharge permits and other innovative methods of managing pollution loads to Great Lakes waters.

 

This page created 1995
Last updated 07 November 2001 by Wittman
© University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
designed by Tina Yao tlyao@seagrant.wisc.edu

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Research/Policy/research.html