Impact Assessments
Learn about the socioeconomic benefits that Earth observations provide when people use them to make decisions.
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Tools & Resources
Browse our educational materials—including an ongoing "Value of Science" explainer series—and learn more about our activities to support the Earth science community in quantifying the societal value of its work.
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Grants for Assessing the Benefits of Satellites
These grant-funded research projects quantify the benefits of satellite data that inform decisions and lead to improved outcomes.
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Featured Content
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Explainer — Aug 26, 2021
Value of Science 107: The VALUABLES Impact Assessment Framework, Step 1: Identifying Improved Information and Its Alternatives
Identifying the decisionmaker, context, and alternative sources of information are all part of a crucial first step in an effective impact assessment.
Explainer — Jul 22, 2021
Value of Science 106: The VALUABLES Impact Assessment Framework
The VALUABLES impact assessment framework can be used to investigate how new data influences decisions and quantifies how these decisions improve societal outcomes, such as lives or dollars saved.
Explainer — Jun 24, 2021
Value of Science 105: Three Principles of the Value of Information
When does information benefit society, and how can its value be measured? This explainer answers these questions and introduces a framework to measure the value of information.
Explainer — Aug 26, 2021
Value of Science 107: The VALUABLES Impact Assessment Framework, Step 1: Identifying Improved Information and Its Alternatives
Identifying the decisionmaker, context, and alternative sources of information are all part of a crucial first step in an effective impact assessment.
Explainer — Jul 22, 2021
Value of Science 106: The VALUABLES Impact Assessment Framework
The VALUABLES impact assessment framework can be used to investigate how new data influences decisions and quantifies how these decisions improve societal outcomes, such as lives or dollars saved.
Explainer — Jun 24, 2021
Value of Science 105: Three Principles of the Value of Information
When does information benefit society, and how can its value be measured? This explainer answers these questions and introduces a framework to measure the value of information.
Workshop/Seminar — Oct 30, 2019
2019 VALUABLES Consortium Annual Workshop
The VALUABLES Consortium's workshop is an annual gathering of economists, NASA experts, Earth scientists, decisionmakers, and thought leaders.
RFF Live — Oct 30, 2019
Taking the Pulse of a Changing Planet
Watch experts discuss past, present, and future opportunities in applications of satellite data.
Webinar — Oct 16, 2019
VALUABLES Consortium Grants for Assessing the Benefits of Satellites: Applicant Webinar
Learn more about the VALUABLES Consortium's GABS funding opportunity.
Press Release — Feb 9, 2021
A NOAA Website Offers Free Tools, Data, and Trainings—and Provides Millions of Dollars in Societal Value
An RFF report examines ways in which the Digital Coast, an online platform run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, creates societal value through better-informed decisionmaking on coastal issues.
Press Release — Jun 24, 2020
Early Detection of Harmful Algal Blooms Using Satellites Improves Management Decisions and Human Health Outcomes
As Americans head to the shores and lakefronts this summer, a new analysis reveals just how valuable satellites-based detection of harmful algal blooms can be in protecting visitors and residents alike.
Press Release — Jun 11, 2020
RFF Awards $300,000 to Researchers to Quantify the Economic and Societal Benefits of Satellites
RFF and NASA Fund Three Projects to Assess the Benefits of Satellites
Resources Radio — Mar 23, 2021
Space, Satellites, and Society: New Tools for Policymakers, with Danielle Wood
Danielle Wood describes how novel space technologies can protect fragile ecosystems and empower historically underserved communities.
Common Resources — Feb 9, 2021
Estimating the Value of NOAA’s Digital Coast
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) maintains a website, the “Digital Coast,” that hosts a variety of useful tools for coastal management. New RFF research estimates the economic value of uses of the site and finds sizable benefits.
Resources Magazine — Oct 22, 2020
Space: The Next Great Market Opportunity
Michael Toman, lead climate change economist at the World Bank’s Development Research Group, discusses on the Resources Radio podcast the commercialization and privatization of outer space.
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