Economic impacts of Florida red tide: Known knowns and known unknowns after 3 years of investigation

April 18, 2023 in Seminar

Christa Court, Assistant Professor, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida

Join us for the livestream April 19th, 11:45am ET: https://youtube.com/live/Uhq_1gTv-2s?feature=share 

(Please visit our YouTube channel main page for the stream if there are any issues with the direct link.)

Abstract

Coastal communities are inextricably linked to the marine environments they border. Marine-dependent industries such as commercial fishing, water-related tourism, and those that provide marine recreation opportunities are directly dependent on the resources that specific marine environments provide. When these coastal communities are exposed to harmful algal blooms (HABs), there can be significant economic losses, which often depend on the size, severity, timing, and duration of the event. This seminar will provide an overview of the findings from three years of externally funded research led by Dr. Court and supported by several co-PIs and her colleagues within the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program to quantify select economic impacts of HAB events in Florida and throughout the Gulf of Mexico region. 

Bio

Dr. Christa D. Court is an Assistant Professor of Regional Economics in the Food & Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida (UF), Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences (IFAS). She also serves as Director of the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program, which conducts regional economic analyses for a wide range of externally funded projects. She holds affiliate faculty status with Florida Sea Grant, UF School of Natural Resources and Environment, the UF Water Institute, the Regional Research Institute at West Virginia University, and the University of the Westfjords in Ísafjörður, Iceland. Her research interests include disaster impact assessment, regional economic modeling, economic impact analysis, and connections in human and natural systems. Dr. Court is leading numerous funded research projects involving regional economic modeling and has a growing list of related publications. She holds undergraduate degrees in Economics and Spanish from Middle Tennessee State University and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from West Virginia University.

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