Delaware EPSCoR Economics

Graphic Image of DE What makes a location livable? Is it economic and employment opportunities? Clean air and water? Open space for recreation? Good schools? Low taxes? Cultural and artistic events? Minimal traffic?

While we all have slightly different criteria for our ideal home, there are certain major characteristics that most people would agree make a community a good place to live. The tricky part is to accommodate human needs and desires without sacrificing the environmental resources that sustain us now and into the future.

Delaware's population has grown rapidly over the past decade. In that time, according to the Delaware Population Consortium, the state as a whole grew 18 percent, while Sussex County alone grew 38 percent. Such growth imposes numerous challenges on our state's infrastructure and services.

Sustainable development is a concept that seeks to balance the pressure to use natural resources to meet the needs and desires of people today with the need to preserve natural resources for future generations. Population growth is inevitable, but we have many choices in how to accommodate that growth to keep our communities livable.

The Delaware EPSCoR program aims to contribute to the effort to maintain a livable Delaware in several ways:

by providing insight into environmental changes that result from human resource use
by developing new tools for environmental monitoring that will provide early warning of potential damage
by developing new means of remediating environmental damage that has already occurred
by supporting the development of new, cleaner industries that will offer continued economic opportunities to residents of the state.

Former Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner developed a "Livable Delaware" policy to guide land development within the state. Read more about it here.