Integrative Economics, LLC

Integrative Economics, LLC

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Lighthouse being struck by an ocean wav

Introducing: Special Projects

In October 2024, Integrative Economics celebrated its tenth anniversary as a going concern. We initially launched with a project for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership: an economic analysis of nature-based flood risk management approaches in two Bay Area watersheds. As we neared the end of that project in late 2016,

Photo credit: Oregon State University Extension

Projects: Building New Tools for Pollinator Habitat Enhancement

We are excited to share that our pollinator habitat enhancement project was selected for Regen Network's Community Funding Program. We will be working on new cooperative models to design, fund, and sustain pollinator habitat creation on working lands using innovative ecological modeling and governance tools. We look forward

Photograph of NCAR Sabreliner, 1970s

What’s another weather station worth?

I studied economics around the outset of what I call the Freakonomics era, named after Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner’s best-selling book published in 2005. This marked a time when mainstream coverage of economics turned to some relatively exotic topics, like collusion in the sumo wrestling world, or the

Projects: Optical Scouting Tools for Crop Health

In July 2019, we were awarded a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant by the National Science Foundation to develop remote sensing products to monitor insect populations in agriculture. Our focus will be on extending this work into additional crop health and management tools for growers of high-value crops who

Fundable Concepts for Research in Land and Environmental Systems

Fundable Concepts for Research in Land and Environmental Systems

Originally published June 7, 2019 on Medium Over the years I have kept a running tab of research questions related to environmental, agricultural, natural resource, and urban economics. These are often multi-disciplinary, dealing with questions around technology, equity, individual-versus-collective interests, and community well-being. I would like to share some of

Picture of a stream

Expanding the set of feasible allocations

What economics can tell us about mobilizing group action Originally published May 24, 2019 on Medium Two neighbours may agree to drain a meadow, which they possess in common; because ’tis easy for them to know each others mind; and each must perceive, that the immediate consequence of his failing

Image of a spiral staircase

Knowledge Production in the Ecological Data Economy

An ongoing series on the value of ecological data Originally published September 21, 2018 on Medium (See Part 1 here) This post addresses the value of ecological data used to support regenerative land management practices. We describe an approach to estimate current values of ecological data based on what we

Cooperative Games and the Ecological Data Economy

Cooperative Games and the Ecological Data Economy

A series on the intersection of ecology and emerging token economies Originally published July 18, 2019 on Medium Part 1: Metaphors and market design The advent of token economies has given us a profusion of metaphors to describe how these economies work. A non-exhaustive list of token economy metaphors would

Video screenshot of open source technology panel at Reversapalooza 2018

Projects: Open Source Environmental Technology

Integrative Economics joined soil science experts, practitioners of regenerative land management, and blockchain technologists for the Reversapalooza gathering in Seattle in April 2018. Kyle Birchard appeared on a panel discussing open source technologies used in environmental and ecological applications. We have been working to quantify the market for carbon storage

Photo of Lower Walnut Creek restoration site

Projects: Multi-Benefit Environmental Restoration

The Flood Control 2.0 project created tools to evaluate economic impacts of new flood risk management alternatives in the San Francisco Bay Area, evaluating tidal marsh restoration in highly urbanized watersheds. We helped estimate the value of restoration benefits, including recreational uses and the expansion of habitat for protected

Photo of the Node-Econ model builder concept

Help Build NODE-ECON

Originally published September 22, 2017 Origins Around 2000 or 2001, I started working with Max/MSP and Pure Data for sound synthesis. For a technically-minded musician, the interface and underlying concepts are intuitive and allow for rapid development of sound-making objects without the need for writing tons of code. At