Galveston Bay and the surrounding area: human uses, production and economic values

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the extent to which Galveston Bay and its adjacent land area are used for various purposes and their respective economic values. In some cases, data are not available to demonstrate the extent of present use; data on level of infrastructure or some other indicator are used as proxies. Use and value are presented as a percentage of total activity for Galveston Bay use levels and values over time are presented to understand trends. Finally, some findings regarding demographics and use are compared with those from other estuaries in the United States. In the following paper, information is presented on seven major use categories for the Galveston Bay complex.