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Nearly 50% of the nation's oysters and shrimp production comes from the Gulf Coast region hit by Hurricane Katrina. The Gulf Coast fishing industry has suffered from a series of events that have multiplied the effects of Hurricanes Katrina, Ivan, and Rita. Coupled with these hurricanes, pressures of increased foreign seafood imports and higher fuel costs have reduced margins across the industry and left it on the brink of devastation. Beyond the environmental damage caused by the storms and subsequent run-offs in this high production region, man-made facilities such as docks, marinas, fueling stations, ice houses, processing plants, boats and transportation systems necessary to make this industry competitive are in need of repair, replacement and upgrades.
The University of Alabama's Aging Infrastructure Systems Center of Excellence has initiated a project to support the Gulf Coast fisheries ecosystem and the associated fishing industry infrastructures. These infrastructures will be assessed in context of the social, economic, environmental management, and transportation infrastructures of the region. This assessment provides the metrics for evaluating the socioeconomic benefits of the coastal and marine ecosystem.
Grounded on the fisheries ecosystem and the fishing industry's socioeconomic goals and metrics, the project will produce a comprehensive decision support architecture to support public policy makers, ecosystem and public works (including
transportation) managers, private sector operators, workers, and recreation users in making decisions related to a sustainable ecosystem and fisheries industry. The architecture promotes a more robust paradigm, based on multi-objective, multi-criteria system performance rather than a traditional component capacity approach.
This collection of infrastructure systems is too often assessed independently and must therefore compete for limited investment funds. Significant interaction effects between these infrastructure systems are most often ignored. It is imperative that the ecosystem and socioeconomic infrastructure be collectively analyzed in order to conserve, protect and manage marine resources in a deliberate manner. This project proposes to use the paradigm of a system of infrastructure systems, asset management, intelligent command and control, knowledge management, and human and social sciences to balance sustainable economic development and a healthy functioning coastal and marine ecosystem. To accomplish its purpose, this project will bring draw project members from the colleges of business, engineering and natural sciences, and experts from the private and public sector.
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