NERP TE Project 10.2 Socio-economic systems and reef resilience (JCU)

This project focuses on relationships between socio-economic systems and the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). It comprises three interrelated activities to investigate:\n\n1. Resident and tourist views about the relative ¿value¿ of key ecosystem services that are provided by the reef. Researchers will design, distribute and analyse the results of a survey instrument to assess the relative value of different goods and services produced by the GBR to stakeholder groups using both traditional money-based valuation techniques and Larson¿s non-monetary based technique. \n\n2. Tourist views about the relative value of key attributes of reef health, and the likely consequence if reef health deteriorates such as fewer visits and less expenditure. \n\n3. Researchers will develop proxies for rainfall, water quality, land use and economy at the catchment scale. Analyses of these data will be used to determine the extent to which variations in beef prices, the exchange rate and other socio-economic variables (in conjunction with biophysical variables) influence water quality in the GBR lagoon.

本项目聚焦社会经济系统与大堡礁（Great Barrier Reef，GBR）之间的相互关系，共包含三项相互关联的调研活动：
1. 居民与游客对大堡礁所提供的关键生态系统服务相对「价值」的认知。研究人员将设计、发放并分析调研问卷，结合传统货币估值技术与拉森（Larson）非货币估值方法，评估大堡礁产出的各类商品与服务对利益相关群体的相对价值。
2. 游客对大堡礁健康状况核心属性的相对价值认知，以及大堡礁健康状况恶化可能产生的后果，例如到访人次减少、消费支出降低。
3. 研究人员将构建流域尺度下降雨、水质、土地利用与经济状况的代理变量。通过对上述数据的分析，可明确牛肉价格、汇率及其他社会经济变量（结合生物物理变量）的波动，在多大程度上影响大堡礁潟湖的水质。