Dr Alaya Spencer-Cotton
Bio
My research is focused on understanding how people value their world around them by asking about their preferences, and by looking at their behaviours and the choices they make. Inspired by the diverse landscapes of Western Australia, I want to ensure that people’s values and preferences for natural resources are adequately included in land-use policy and planning.
I am an environmental economist currently working as Research Fellow in a collaboration between the UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy and the UWA Oceans Institute.
I have been awarded the UK Agricultural Economics Society Prize Essay for best article by an early-career researcher in 2018 and, after completing my PhD research in 2022, I have secured funding for post-doctoral research on the social licence to operate offshore renewable wind farms in Australia.
My undergraduate degree is in Marine and Environmental Science from Murdoch University here in Perth, and I have a Masters in Environmental and Resource Economics from the Australian National University in Canberra.
Skills
Non-market valuation, contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments, travel cost method, questionnaire and survey design and administration, focus group facilitation, Stata and R
Areas of application
Biodiversity, threatened species, natural resources management, urban waterway planning, rangeland land-use policy, marine park planning, planning and management of coastal resources and development, offshore renewable wind energy
