SPACE
Despite its tremendous uniqueness as an environmental and natural resource, outer space is subject to a host of familiar problems. It is polluted, congested, and scarce (particularly in terms of certain orbits and regions of the electromagnetic spectrum), and its effective management is contentious among policymakers who disagree about the roles and responsibilities of the public and private sectors. As the canonical "global commons," space is also an environment in which international competition and cooperation have been required -although how to balance these remains unresolved.
Research at RFF has included analysis of systems of taxes and compensation funds for damages associated with space debris, as well as the potential for full marginal cost and other pricing regimes to manage scarce space transportation and satellite communications resources. Recent work is investigating the public goods value of environmental information derived from Earth observing satellites. RFF researchers are also using these data along with spatial mapping and visualization tools like GoogleEarth and Microsoft Virtual Earth to investigate how the vantage point of space may influence how we "see" our relationship with environmental and natural resources.