Sarah C. Braddy Socio-Economics Group
BACKGROUND & RELEVANCE Ditton et al., 1995, 1999, 2001, 2002 Links to tourism Included demographics of divers Lee, 2013 Corpus Christi a top tourism destination in TX Nature tourism comprises a large portion of all visitortrips Adams et al, 2007 USS Oriskany Malki et al, 2010 USTS Texas Clipper Stolk et al, 2004 Artificial reefs great for divers, help protect natural reefs Meyer & Holland, 2008 MPA in Hawaii seeing some damage from divers Riad et al., 2007 Applied weighted overlay for site suitability for groundwater artificial recharge locations Demesouka et al., 2013 Landfill suitability analysis using MC-SDSS
Recognize what constitutes acceptable artificial reef deployment sites suitable for recreational scuba diving OBJECTIVES Understand how the local economy benefits from scuba diving K. Mendenhall
STUDY AREA
STUDY AREA ZOOMED IN
L. Showalter L. Showalter L. Showalter L. Showalter
L. Hutchison Chase.wordpress.com Reefball.org S. Braddy
METHODS AND SURVEY DESIGN In person/phone surveys of licensed full service dive shop owners and boat operators Online surveys of individual certified scuba divers via Qualtrics Site suitability via ArcMAP Economic Impact Analysis via IMPLAN V 3.1 with State Plus Package (Texas) Socio-demographics Use patterns Level of involvement Motivations Attitudes Expenditures
BROADER IMPACTS OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Assess economic benefits accruing from scuba diving Identify to what degree the local public benefits from scuba diving Determine actual and potential impacts of artificial reef development and deployment on the Texas economy Determine to what extent artificial reef deployment and development is an efficient public investment
ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS RESULTS DIRECT EFFECT SECONDARY EFFECTS INDIRECT INDUCED TOTAL EFFECT OUTPUT $1,698,713 $697,230 $1,109,354 $3,505,297 EMPLOYMENT 35 5 8 48 DIRECT EFFECT SECONDARY EFFECTS INDIRECT INDUCED TOTAL EFFECT MULTIPLIER OUTPUT $1.00 $0.42 $0.66 $2.08 $2.08 EMPLOYMENT 22 3 5 30 1.4
BROADER IMPACTS OF GIS Determine what constitutes suitable scuba diving in Texas Gulf waters Identify what kinds of artificial reefs need to be developed to better suit scuba divers Determine optimal locations for artificial reef deployment to better suits scuba divers ANALYSIS
WHAT DO TEXAS DIVERS WANT M0a.com A day trip Close to a dive shop for diving needs Best visibility possible Structure in 100-200 feet of water In proximity to an existing structure Wrecks Fishingdestin.com
WEIGHTING SCHEME Distance to viable boat dock Distance 10 20 30 40 50 Weight 5 4 3 2 1 Distance to full service dive shop Distance 10 15 20 25 30 Weight 5 4 3 2 1 Visibility Distance 10 20 30 40 50 Weight 1 2 3 4 5 Distance to existing structures Distance 2 4 6 8 10 Weight 5 4 3 2 1 Bathymetry Depth 0-69 70-139 140-209 210-279 180-349 Weight 2 4 5 4 1 5 = most favorable/most heavily weighted 1 = least favorable/least heavily weighted
WEIGHTED OVERLAY TABLE Weighted Overlay Table Raster Distance to a viable boat dock % Influence 40 Visibility 30 Distance to a full service dive shop Distance to existing structures 10 10 Bathymetry 10 K. Mendenhall
WEIGHTED OVERLAY RESULTS
MOVING FORWARD Analyze local differences and preferences Compare with data prior to rig removals Compare with diving internationally Incorporate Qualtrics survey results Compare impacts with that of the recreational fishing industry Objective visibility measure Analyze where the divers are coming from Take in to account seasonality; weather, water temp, currents, visibility
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Committee Dr. David Yoskowitz: Endowed Chair for Socio- Economics at HRI Faculty Committee Chair Dr. Jim Lee: Regents Professor of Economics at TAMUCC Dr. Michael Starek: Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Systems and Geo-Spatial Engineering at TAMUCC Others Texas Parks and Wildlife Dive shop owners/boat operators and individual certified divers Brett Dodson: TAMUCC DSO Family Friends
S. Braddy