Cheryl Day is a Research Officer at the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP) and the School of Agriculture and Environment (SAgE) at The University of Western Australia. Transitioning from a career in banking and finance, Cheryl pursued a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics, graduating with First Class Honours. She has since contributed to numerous agricultural and resource economics projects within the School.

Cheryl’s work spans diverse areas, including economic assessments in agriculture, natural environments, and coastal systems. Her contributions extend to projects with Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) such as Plant Biosecurity and Honey Bee Products, an ARC Discovery project, and initiatives addressing coastal hazards and adaptation strategies for state and local governments.

In her role, Cheryl provides research support, project management, and analytical expertise. She brings extensive experience in research, model development, survey design and implementation, data analysis, and stakeholder engagement.

Her current research interests focus on decision-making processes for coastal hazard adaptation and how community values are integrated. Cheryl is also passionate about assessing and implementing nature-based solutions for environmental challenges like coastal erosion and flooding. In agriculture, she enjoys bioeconomic modelling to explore the dynamics of biological and economic production systems.

ARC Discovery

• Elicit expert judgements about the benefits and costs of the value of information in non-market valuation methods.

Coastal Erosion Hotspot Assessment Review (Western Australia)

• Compile, structure and map site information to create a consistent and useable format to enable the application of ranking criteria to identify priorities for future studies and assess potential protective measures for environmental and public assets.

Honey Bee Products CRC

• Develop, implement and analyse a state-wide beekeeper survey to gather production data to value bee flora in native bush apiary sites in Western Australia.

Plant Biosecurity CRC

• Collected and assessed historical data on decision-making, investment and impacts of past pest incursions affecting the grains and horticulture industries.
• Conducted bioeconomic modelling and analysis to evaluate investment strategies in pre-breeding efforts aimed at managing high-priority biosecurity threats to the grains industry.

Coastal Values Project (Western Australia)

This project aims to assess the economic value of public and natural assets along the Western Australian coastline through non-market valuation methods, including travel cost and willingness-to-pay choice experiments.

Cheryl’s role in the project adapts as it progresses through different stages. Initially, she contributed to reporting insights from community focus group workshops, which explored the public’s understanding and misconceptions about coastal hazards and adaptation planning. These workshops also identified levels of information needs and effective modes for transparent information sharing.

Currently, Cheryl’s primary responsibilities include stakeholder engagement, project management, and survey development and testing. She is also involved in creating a coastal values data repository that will later integrate with an economic decision support tool for prioritising coastal adaptation strategies. Upon completion, this benefit-cost analysis tool will support coastal managers in making informed adaptation decisions, allowing them to apply extrapolated values to their own coastal sites.