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The Blue Economy (BE) is rapidly becoming one of the most commonly applied regional economic paradigms in coastal and maritime regions globally. Since the late 1970s, the U.S. Great Lakes basin has searched for ways to reverse its economic decline, and the BE offers new opportunities to sustain the region's economic development, possibly sustaining its transition towards new economic sectors. In developing, applying, and critically appraising a definition of the BE in one of the largest fresh-water systems in the world, our work identifies how regional characteristics and intersectoral conflicts can pose issues to both policymakers and researchers. The use of standard metrics (e.g. location quotients) allows us to compare our findings with previous works conducted in other regions. From this comparison, and by comparing inter-state differences, we find that the BE in the region comprises highly-productive clusters, although employment specialization remains low. In addition, several BE clusters are dominated by industries that are different compared to those in other regions. To the Great Lakes basin, our work represents a benchmark analysis that builds upon existing concepts used locally by researchers and policymakers alike for crafting policies aimed at supporting economic growth in a region only recently emerging from a long period of economic and demographic decline.

The United States is a diverse and heterogeneous place. Accurately organizing and mapping the U.S. into different regions based on characteristics such as wealth, race, education, language, and occupation is a complicated and arduous task. This paper demonstrates the application of affinity propagation to map socio-economic patterns and identify representative exemplars. Affinity propagation clusters data based on representative exemplars and considers all data points as potential cluster exemplars. We use socio-economic data from the United States census to cluster zip codes tabulation areas and identify representative locations of socio-economic diversity of the United States. The 11 socio-economic clusters were mapped individually and together using area-based generalization. Mapping the results illustrated distinct regionalization and historical migration trends within the United States as well as national urban/suburban/rural patterns. Future applications of this technique may be useful for data-driven socio-economic analysis and purposive sampling.

Marine Renewable Energy (MREs) holds extensive environmental, social, and economic potential for rural coastal areas across the globe, which are often resource-rich but capital-poor, often due to historic paradigm of economic (under) development. Focusing on the Highland and Islands region (HIR) of Scotland, we identify a conundrum which is currently limiting overall development of MREs and their positive effects, mainly due to the lack of access to sustained sectorial investments and a stable demand for electricity. From a historic perspective, we identify in the Megaloplis paradigm the reasons for this conundrum. Further, we develop a new policy and governance paradigm, DICEP, rooted in the concepts of diffusion of benefits, inclusive governance, community engagement, regional entrepreneurship, and a balancing top-down approaches with bottom up initiatives. The paradigm builds upon local strengths and policies for combining MREs and economic development policies for expanding non-residential electricity demand through the support of productive activities. Finally, we present two case studies where elements of Megalopolis and DICEP emerge, as well as propose potential localized uses of energy for manufacturing and agricultural practices. DICEP acts as an operationalization of the New Rural Paradigm, and a bridge between the initial diffusion of MREs and their future full deployment.

Dr. Jasper Kenter was supported in this work by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Marine Ecosystem Services Research Programme under grant reference NE/L003058/1. Understanding the cultural contributions of ecosystems is essential for recognising how environmental policy impacts on human well-being. We developed an integrated cultural ecosystem services (CES) valuation approach involving non-monetary valuation through a eudaemonic well-being questionnaire and monetary valuation through hedonic pricing. This approach was applied to assess CES values on the west coast of Scotland. The impact of scenic area and marine protected area (MPA) designations on CES values and potential trade-offs with aquaculture, an increasingly important provisioning ecosystem service in the region, were investigated. Results confirmed a eudaemonic well-being value structure of seven factors: engagement and interaction with nature, place identity, therapeutic value, spiritual value, social bonds, memory/transformative value, and challenge and skill. Visibility of, but not proximity to aquaculture negatively influenced housing prices. In contrast, proximity to MPAs and visibility of scenic areas increased property values. All eudaemonic well-being value factors were positively and significantly associated with scenic areas and a subset of these with MPAs. The integration of the two methods can provide decision-makers with a more comprehensive picture of CES values, their relation to conservation policies and interactions and trade-offs with other activities and services. Publisher PDF

Tree-trimming operations (TTOs) are expensive, yet popular management practices for increasing power-grid reliability. In this work, we investigate and identify the relationship between TTOs and power outages and quantify the regional economic benefits TTOs provide in the three years following these operations. Our data focus on a portion of Connecticut, for 2009–2015. We find that even a limited application of TTOs reduce outages substantially. We combine this result with an advanced economic model to estimate the benefits to the state. We find that this reduction in outages translates in to considerable savings for the state's economy, justifying expansion of TTOs.

Fisheries products are globally traded commodities, which have led to varying degrees of social and economic dependency for producing regions. These dependencies become more evident at times of major demand or supply shocks. Resilience to such shocks is intertwined with, and rooted in, the intra-sectoral structure and governance frameworks. This work analyses two large-scale, capital-intensive and export-oriented seafood sectors: Atlantic salmon and North-east Atlantic mackerel, responded to the environmental, economic and geopolitical shocks accompanying their development, from a UK perspective. Intra-firm controls are identified as elements, which have delivered resilience and strength in these two sectors. This work highlights the central, yet different role of the UK government in increasing their resilience and underlying producing regions. Our work contributes to the broader context of regional development and changing global food demand identifying both domestic and external threats to sustainability. Our approach aims to expand the debate around seafood production from ‘food security’ to a transdisciplinary analysis, which incorporates wider economic, social, and ecological sustainability aspects.