Project Title: “From Bloom to Bust: Estimating Economic Losses and Impacts of Florida Red Tide (Karenia brevis)” will be conducted by Drs. Sergio Alvarez from the University of Central Florida and Dr. Heather O’Leary from the University of South Florida. $277,122.
Project Summary: This two-year project will examine the economic impacts of K. brevis events across 80 different sectors, based on varied bloom occurrence and intensity. Understanding the true costs of HABs is key to developing effective response and adaptation strategies that meet the needs of impacted communities in Florida and around the country.
“We know that harmful algal blooms drive people away from the waterfront,” Alvarez said. “With this project, we will identify how Florida red tide has been impacting the state’s economy in terms of reduced sales from different economic sectors. But we are also testing the idea that information from social media could be more of a driver in these impacts than so-called objective measures, like water sampling data.”
Adds O’Leary: "When everyday people make the small-scale and large-scale decisions that ultimately impact Florida's economy, they're not necessarily checking biophysical monitoring or formal economic metrics. They're more likely making those decisions by checking with friends and colleagues on social media. By keeping one eye on social media and the other on economic metrics, we're able to get a better sense of how these interact to make HABs worse, or to lessen their impact."
About the University of South Florida System
The University of South Florida System is a high-impact global research system dedicated to student success. The USF System includes three institutions: USF, USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee. The institutions are separately accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. All institutions have distinct missions and their own detailed strategic plans. Serving over 50,000 students, the USF System has an annual budget of $1.8 billion and an annual economic impact of $4.4 billion. USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference.
About the University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida is a public research university located in Orlando, Florida. Founded in 1963 to fuel the region’s talent pipeline and support the growing U.S. space program, UCF has been making an impact on the state, the nation — and outer space — ever since. UCF is an academic, partnership and research leader in numerous fields, such as optics and lasers, modeling and simulation, engineering and computer science, business, public administration, education, hospitality management, healthcare and video game design. The university is also a top supplier of graduates to the aerospace and defense industries.
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