Ecology, Ecosystems and Coastal Management

Ecological Economics

Ecological economics is both a transdisciplinary and an interdisciplinary field of academic research addressing the interdependence and coevolution of human economies and natural ecosystems, both intertemporally and spatially. By treating the economy as a subsystem of Earth's larger ecosystem, and by emphasizing the preservation of natural capital, the field of ecological economics is differentiated from environmental economics, which is the mainstream economic analysis of the environment. One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing strong sustainability and rejecting the proposition that natural capital can be substituted by human-made capital.

1. Methodology
2. Allocation of resources
3. Weak versus strong sustainability
4. Energy economics
5. Energy accounting and balance
6. Ecosystem services and their valuation
7. Not 'externalities', but cost shifting
8. Ecological-economic modeling