Regional Sustainability: Bridging Resource Conservation and Economic Development

National Science Foundation, and
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Science Foundation)
2001-2002

Project Summary

The objective of this interdisciplinary project is to combine expertise and resources in addressing the problem of formulating environmentally sustainable development policies for watersheds. Two projects are currently underway, one in the Hudson River watershed of New York State and the other in the Elbe River watershed of central Germany. These projects have the common objective of modeling the interactions between economic activity, land use changes, and ecological impacts. Both projects involve interdisciplinary cooperation between ecologists and economists to formulate environmentally sustainable regional development options. The two regions have numerous environmental protection issues in common including increasing pressure from development, increasing public support for ecosystem protection, and common environmental problems of watershed degradation and forest management.