Melina Kourantidou

Dr. Melina Kourantidou is an environmental and resource economist working with economics and management of fisheries and aquatic invasive species. Her long-term research interests include interdisciplinary approaches that apply economics, ecology and biology to environmental issues in order to improve management strategies and help ensure sustainable development and healthy resilient ecosystems. Her work is grounded in aquatic resource management and governance issues and integrates natural and social science research. Her research focuses specifically on the effects induced by ecological and related socioeconomic changes taking place in aquatic environments as well as on understanding how human behavior affects aquatic resources. It encompasses interaction with local resource users and communities affected by changes as well as understanding of trade-offs, often through bioeconomic modelling, assessment of equity dimensions, optimal allocation of resources as well as control and monitoring strategies for invasive species along with opportunities for cooperative management.  She has an international experience having worked for several years at the University of Southern Denmark, Dalhousie University (Canada), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in (MA, U.S.) and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Greece).