10.2190/3BBY-X1KQ-GGWX-TTEH 3BBYX1KQGGWXTTEH 2 Evaluation of Costs Associated with Regional, Environmental Impact in Chesapeake Bay 15 31 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 3BBYX1KQGGWXTTEH.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=3BBYX1KQGGWXTTEH 1 Robert Walker Kathy Rex-Lopatto Regional Research Institute and Department of Geography, West Virginia University Department of Resource Development, Michigan State University In this article, environmental impact in Chesapeake Bay is examined, particularly as it relates to the health and maintenance of Striped Bass populations valuable to both sports and commercial fisheries. A dynamic simulation model is developed using optimal control theory to calculate accumulating opportunity costs of fish population decline caused by pollution in the Bay. The model is then applied to the actual situation using data on Striped Bass populations and rates of habitat loss resulting from disappearing submerged aquatic vegetation. The model is set up to provide information that can be used in benefit-cost analysis, and the impact cost is calculated over time periods during which environmental conditions are modeled to change. J. R. Kahn and W. M. Kemp, Economic Losses Associated with the Degradation of an Ecosystem: The Case of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in Chesapeake Bay, <i>Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 12</i>, pp. 246-263, 1985. Environmental Protection Agency, <i>Chesapeake Bay: A Framework for Action</i>, EPA, Region 3, Philadelphia, PA, 1983a. Environmental Protection Agency, <i>Chesapeake Bay: A Profile of Environmental Change</i>, EPA, Region 3, Philadelphia, PA, 1983b. Environmental Protection Agency, <i>Chesapeake Bay Program: Findings and Recommendations</i>, EPA, Region 3, Philadelphia, PA, 1983c. A. C. Fisher, <i>Resource and Environmental Economics</i>, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1981. M. B. Schaefer, Some Considerations of Population Dynamics and Economics in Relation to the Management of Marine Fisheries, <i>Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 14</i>, pp. 669-681, 1957. C. Clark, <i>Mathematical Bioeconomics</i>, John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY, 1976. D. C. Hall, A Note on Natural Production Functions, <i>Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 4</i>, pp. 258-264, 1977. M. Spence, Blue Whales and Applied Control Theory, Technical Report No. 108, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1973. M. Spence and D. Starrett, Most Rapid Approach Paths in Accumulation Problems, <i>International Economic Review, 16</i>, pp. 388-403, 1975. P. S. Dasgupta, <i>The Control of Resources</i>, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1972. P. S. Dasgupta and G. M. Heal, <i>Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources</i>, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979. H. S. Gordon, Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery, <i>Journal of Political Economy, 62</i>, pp. 124-142, 1954. J. M. Acheson, The Lobster Fiefs: Economic and Ecological Effects of Territoriality in the Main Lobster Industry, <i>Human Ecology, 3</i>:3, pp. 183-207, 1975. R. P. Gale, Federal Management of Forests and Marine Fisheries: A Comparative Analysis of Renewable Resource Management, <i>Natural Resources Journal, 25</i>:2, pp. 275-315, 1985. J. Arney, Personal Communication, Department of Natural Resources, Maryland, 1986. P. Copes, Factor Rents, Sole Ownership, and the Optimal Level of Fisheries Exploitation, <i>The Manchester School of Social and Economic Studies, 40</i>, pp. 145-163, 1972. C. Clark, and G. R. Munro, Fisheries and the Processing Sector: Some Implications for Management Policy, <i>The Bell Journal of Economics, 11</i>, pp. 603-616, 1980. W. M. Kemp, Personal Communication, University of Maryland, 1984. R. C. Porter, The Optimal Timing of an Exhaustible, Reversible Wilderness Development Project, <i>Land Economics, 60</i>:3, pp. 247-254, 1984. U. S. Department of Commerce, <i>Fishery Statistics of the United States</i>, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Washington, D. C., 1977. Centaur Associates, <i>Economic Impact of the Commercial Fishing Industry in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Regions</i>, Centaur Associates, Washington, D. C., 1984. C. Clark and G. R. Munro, The Economics of Fishing and Modern Capital Theory: A Simplified Approach, <i>Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2</i>, pp. 92-106, 1975.