Economic Development and Environment Assignment

For this assignment you will find out about and describe the major industries, employers, recreation and tourism opportunities, environmental assets and liabilities, and challenges and opportunities involved with each for your place.

1. Locate economic data for your place in the Economic Census, the Census of Agriculture, and/or the U.S. Census. You may use other sources of data if necessary.
2. Locate additional information on recreation and tourism opportunities for your location using the web, maps, newspapers, books, or other primary and secondary sources as appropriate.
3. Locate information on environmental assets (parks, unique ecosystems, etc.) and environmental problems for your location. Use similar primary and secondary sources as you did for the above steps.
4. Write a 3 to 5 page report that:
   1. Describes the overall economic geography of your rural place. Discuss major industries, employers, and other features of the economy. A good way to organize your discussion would be by sectors (resource extraction/agriculture, manufacturing, services, and information/research).
   2. Describes opportunities for recreation and tourism as part of your discussion of the economic geography of your place (you might place this in the section on services if you follow that organizational scheme).
   3. Describes the environmental assets and problems for your place.
   4. Assesses the challenges and opportunities your place faces in terms of its economy and environment. One way to do this is to evaluate the economy and environment in terms of the concepts, issues, and trends discussed in your textbook and other readings. Ideally you will do this throughout your paper, but it could be accomplished in a conclusion. Ideally you will also be able to link economic and environmental issues in this discussion.

Additional tips

1. Since you will most likely be relying on promotional materials for at least a part of your assignment, you will need to think about and evaluate what you find against the data you collect from the census, maps, newspapers, or other non-promotional materials.
2. Ideally you will want to turn in a paper that is more than simply a laundry list of what is there. Hence item d is vitally important. Don't skimp on evaluation and analysis.
3. If it is appropriate to do so, feel free to include tables, graphs, or maps to summarize your data. Please place the tables/graphs at the end of your text and give each image a figure number (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Be sure that you reference the figure numbers with in the text, (Figure 1) for example.

A good paper will

• Provide a good description of the economic geography, tourism, and recreation, and the environment of your place. The description will be based primarily on the data you have collected and not just on personal experience.
• " Cite sources for the information that you use to construct your description.
• " Discusses opportunities and challenges related to the economy and environment by assessing the data you have collected in terms of the material we have covered in the textbook and other readings. It will not simply be a laundry list of characteristics of your place.
• " Be interesting to read
• " Be 3-5 pages in length (excluding any appendices) and follow standards for written work for the course.

   

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