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According to a recent study in the journal Environmental Challenges, New England natural lands provide $88 billion per year in recreation-use value to U.S. citizens who partake in wildlife-related activities. Considering that the estimated cumulative federal and state contributions to land conservation in New England amounted to less than $1 billion between 2004 and 2014, that $88 billion (the study’s estimate for the year 2016) is an impressive return on investment.

High school student co-authors MIT Joint Program journal article on recreation-use value of U.S. natural lands
Quantifying the recreation use value of New England natural lands

Abstract: It is well-recognized that natural land is of great importance, and measures of the value of natural lands are required when making data-driven policy decisions between land development and land preservation. One of the most important values of natural land areas is the recreational services provided.

In this study, we estimate the recreation use value provided by the natural land in New England. Specifically, we apply the travel cost method to calculate the total consumer surplus for hunting, fishing, and wildlife-watching in the New England region. We also investigate whether and how people from households of different demographic backgrounds have different recreational habits.

Using data from the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, & Wildlife-Associated Recreation, we found that New England natural lands provide a remarkable amount of recreation use value—$88 billion per year to U.S. citizens who partake in wildlife-related activities. Our estimates can serve as input for economic projection and policy analysis models and allow more equitable and appropriate data-driven policy decisions.

Research Highlights:

  • Recreation use of New England natural lands valued at $56–88 billion

  • Applying the travel cost method with a Poisson regression model

  • Data from the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, & Wildlife-Associated Recreation

  • Home region, race, and population density play a role in shaping recreation habits

To achieve the aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change—limiting the increase in global average surface temperature at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels—will require its 196 signatories to dramatically reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Atmospheric observations in China show rise in emissions of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), a potent greenhouse gas
Evolution of system connectivity to support food production in the Indus Basin in Pakistan

Abstract: Sustainability challenges related to food production arise from multiple nature-society interactions occurring over long time periods. Traditional methods of quantitative analysis do not represent long-term changes in the networks of system components, including institutions and knowledge that affect system behavior.

Here, we develop an approach to study system structure and evolution by combining a qualitative framework that represents sustainability-relevant human, technological and environmental components (HTE), and their interactions, mediated by knowledge and institutions, with network modeling that enables quantitative metrics. We use this approach to examine the water and food system in the Punjab province of the Indus River Basin in Pakistan, exploring how food production has been sustained, despite high population growth, periodic floods, and frequent political and economic disruptions. Using network models of five periods spanning seventy-five years (1947-2022), we examine how quantitative metrics of network structure relate to observed sustainability-relevant outcomes and how potential interventions in the system affect these quantitative metrics.

We find that the persistent centrality of some and evolving centrality of other key nodes, coupled with the increasing number and length of pathways connecting them are associated with sustaining food production in the system over time. Assessment of potential interventions regulating groundwater pumping and phasing out fossil-fuels could alter network pathways and identify potential vulnerabilities for future food production.

Significance Statement: Models for informing sustainability interventions in complex adaptive systems involving nature-society interactions are challenging to construct due to lack of detailed, quantitative data on the changing structure of system interactions. Here, we develop a new approach combining qualitative descriptions of system components and interactions, with network representation for quantitative characterization of system structure. We demonstrate this approach with retrospective and prospective analyses related to food production in Pakistan’s Indus River Basin. Results identify the nodes and increasing number of pathways associated with sustained food production. Future scenarios point to production vulnerability due to conversion of arable land with implications on livelihoods for laborers and small business owners and highlight the importance of coordinating rural and urban water and land-use policies.

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