What do the U.S. Coast Guard, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Tampa Marriot, and Tampa Electric have in common? They all depend on the water resources of Tampa Bay to support their business.
The Tampa Bay estuary consists of a productive and diverse stock of natural resources that are vital to the region’s economy and quality of life. The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council performed an economic valuation to quantify and communicate the important societal benefits provided by Tampa Bay to the region. This study has two primary outcomes: first, to demonstrate a yearly snapshot of the contributions of the Tampa Bay estuary to the regional economy and well-being; second, to establish a replicable process for performing a valuation to facilitate future analyses. The findings highlight that the natural resources of the Tampa Bay estuary system provide significant value to the region and are worthy of investment to keep them healthy and productive.
The 2023 Economic Valuation of Tampa Bay illustrates Tampa Bay’s value in three different ways:
- Annual economic impacts, including output, jobs, and wages, generated by bay-dependent industries on the economy. Tampa Bay supports 207,068 employees, $10.4 billion in personal income, and $32.1 billion in total output each year. This means approximately one in ten total jobs and 10.8 percent of the watershed’s total output is sustained by the estuary.
- Proximity effects of the bay on property value premiums. A comparable single-family parcel located within a quarter mile of the water receives a premium of approximately $52,769 to its assessed value. In total, this proximity effect adds $3.23 billion to the region’s property values.
- The value of ecosystem services provided by habitats, such as mangrove forests, saltwater marshes, and freshwater wetlands. Using ecosystem services as a measure of value, habitats of the Tampa Bay estuary provide $52.29 million each year in carbon sequestration services, $714.51 million each year worth of denitrification services, and $924.44 million in flood protection services over 30 years for a flood that has a 1% chance of occurrence in any given year.
The final report can be viewed online or downloaded using the links below. In addition, the results of the report can be explored using the Tampa Bay Estuary Program’s Shiny dashboard. The dashboard includes a summary of the results and allows for a more immersive and interactive experience with the data. The dashboard also includes options for data download.
2023 Economic Valuation of Tampa Bay (Short version):
The 2023 Economic Valuation of Tampa Bay was produced with funding support from the Tampa Bay Environmental Restoration Fund.
