The Natural Capital Project Research Assistant

THE NATURAL CAPITAL PROJECT
Position Announcement
RESEARCH ASSISTANT (ECONOMICS)

The Natural Capital Project will be applying its innovative, spatially-explicit ecosystem-service quantification and valuation tool, InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs), at three Department of Defense (DoD) sites within the continental US over a three year period. The DoD is responsible for managing millions of acres within the US, and this project focuses on improving land-use decisions by incorporating ecosystem services into management decisions. Funding for this project supports the development of a multi-disciplinary team of researchers focused on increasing the efficiency of land-use decisions by the DoD. This team will collaborate to apply InVEST, which will inform resource-management decisions on the demonstration sites and may be incorporated into broader DoD installation-management protocols.

The successful applicant will work in a team to adapt and apply the InVEST ecosystem-service models and will then synthesize these results in order to best inform land-use policy at our demonstration sites. Publication of analyses run using data from demonstration sites and presentation of research findings is encouraged.

Principal Responsibilities:

Collect, create, and refine economic data relevant to the needs of each demonstration site for valuation of focal ecosystem services on each site as well as the estimation of off-site land values for work related to base encroachment and off-base conservation efforts.

• Create reports based on InVEST outputs for presentation of key results at each demonstration site.
• Help create user-friendly manuals tailored to the needs of DoD installation managers for Arc tools.
• Provide technical assistance related to InVEST to relevant personnel on partner installations.
• Additional responsibilities may include helping to adapt and improve the InVEST models.

Qualifications:

• M.S. degree in Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Environmental Economics, or a related field required.
• Some experience in Geographic Information Systems such as ArcGIS, Idrissi.
• Strong expertise in non-market valuation efforts; including experience applying both stated and revealed preference techniques.
• Experience with STATA, Matlab, and R software packages.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

The Research Assistant will be located in Stanford, CA at Stanford University and this position will require extensive interaction with multidisciplinary teams and travel to the three demonstration installations. The successful candidate will be part of the Natural Capital Project, a team overseen by Mary Ruckelshaus (Managing Director) and led by Gretchen Daily (Stanford University), Peter Kareiva (The Nature Conservancy), Steve Polasky (University of Minnesota), and Taylor Ricketts (World Wildlife Fund).

Term: 3 years, from March 2011 through February 2014, and beyond, contingent upon funding.

How to Apply: To ensure that your application information is captured in our official files and that the hiring department has immediate access to your resume, you must apply to jobs.stanford.edu, Job #41057. For full consideration, please submit a cover letter, CV, and the names of three references. We will begin reviewing applications February 7, 2011 and the position will remain open until filled.