273 research outputs found
Achieving Cost Effective Conservation: ORES801 Case Studies of Optimization Application to the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative.
No full textThe following case studies were developed as research projects of the ORES801 course entitled “Optimization: Models and Methods” taught by Dr. Kent Messer at the University of Delaware in the Fall of 2010
Minimizing cost for Municipal residential solid waste collection in City of Newark using Goal Programming & GIS tools.
No full textThe following case studies were developed as research projects of the ORES801 course entitled “Optimization: Models and Methods” taught by Dr. Kent Messer at the University of Delaware in the Fall of 2010
Applying Optimization and the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Enhance Agricultural Preservation Strategies in the State of Delaware
No full textUsing agricultural preservation priorities derived from an analytical hierarchy process by 23 conservation experts from 18 agencies in the state of Delaware, this research uses weighted benefit measures to evaluate the historical success of Delaware’s agricultural protection fund, which spent nearly 25 million.conservation optimization, farmland protection, analytic hierarchy process, binary linear programming, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,
Foreword: Special Issue on Experimental Methods in Environmental, Natural Resource and Agricultural Economics
No full text"Integrating Optimization and Strategic Conservation to Achieve Higher Efficiencies in Land Protection"
No full textStrategic land conservation seeks to select the highest quality lands given limited financial resources. Traditionally conservation officials implement strategic conservation by creating prioritization maps that attempt to identify the lands of highest ecological value or public value from a resource perspective. This paper describes the history of using optimization in strategic conservation and demonstrates how the combination of these approaches can significantly strengthen conservation efforts by making these programs more efficient with public monies.Mathematical Programming, Conservation Optimization, Cost Effectiveness Analysis, Strategic Conservation
"Applying Optimization and the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Enhance Agricultural Preservation Strategies in the State of Delaware"
No full textUsing agricultural preservation priorities derived from an analytical hierarchy process by 23 experts from 18 agencies in the State of Delaware, this research uses weighted suitability attributes to evaluate the historical success of the State of Delaware’s agricultural protection fund, which spent nearly 25 million.Conservation Optimization, Farmland Protection, Analytic Hierarchy Process
Maximizing Benefits for Women in Delaware: Improving Project Selection Using Optimization Techniques.
No full textNon-profit organizations need to use scarce resources efficiently. When it comes to helping Delaware women in need, the two most commonly used conservation methods under-achieve this goal. The Rank-Based method, which picks those projects with the highest benefits but ignores their costs, is the current method used by most non-profits but it always brings minimal total benefits. The Binary Linear Programming method, which picks projects to maximize total benefits while ignoring individual project’s desirability, leads to maximal total benefits but to the detriment of the average projects’ benefits. This paper distinguishes itself from most literature then by showing that optimization can benefit non-profits through tailoring the Rank-Based and Binary Linear Programming methods into a user-friendly, more efficient Hybrid-BLP method. This Hybrid-BLP method leads to a 140% improvement in the number of projects and 112% improvement in total benefits from the Rank-Based method
Reducing Agricultural Water Pollution in Texas: An Application of Linear Optimization
No full textLinear optimizations models have been used for many practical purposes throughout the years – maximization and minimization models have proved to be key tools when striving to reach a goal. This case study employs such a model with the goal of maximizing an approximate reduction of pollutant loads from individual parcels per year with the implementation of BMPs throughout Fort Bend, Texas. The motivations for this study are the ever growing levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and sediment pollutant levels throughout the San Bernard Watershed, in which Fort Bend belongs. To do this, several BMPs related to livestock pollutant loads are examined and selected to be included in the model. This model will choose BMP and parcel combinations in order to provide maximum potential pollutant reductions for each parcel. As a result we obtained 32 BMP implementation recommendations across 31 parcels for a maximum reduction in pollutant loads of roughly 4.3 million pounds per year. A parameter analysis on the maximum budget concluded that the budget could increase until approximately $6
million where it begins to level off at 65 million pounds of pollutant reduction per year. There are several opportunities to expand this research, including developing a watershed wide model
"Maximizing Conservation and In-Kind Cost Share: Applying Goal Programming to Forest Protection"
No full textThis research evaluates the potential gains in benefits from using Goal Programming to preserve forestland. Two- and three-dimensional Goal Programming models are developed and applied to data from applicants to the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program, the largest forest protection program in the United States. Results suggest that not only do these model yield substantial increases in benefits, but by being able to account for both environmental benefits and in-kind partner cost share, Goal Programming may be flexible enough to facilitate adoption by program managers needing to account for both ecological and political factors.Goal programming, multi-objective programming, conservation optimization, forest conservation, environmental services, in-kind cost sharing, matching grants
Matching Grants and Charitable Giving: Why People Sometimes Provide a Helping Hand to Fund Environmental Goods
No full textMatching grants are a prevalent mechanism for funding environmental, conservation, and natural resource projects. However, economists have largely been silent regarding the potential benefits of these mechanisms at increasing voluntary contributions. To examine the behavioral responses to different match levels, this research uses controlled laboratory experiments with generically framed instructions and introduces a general-form matching-grant mechanism, referred to as the proportional contribution mechanism (PCM). Results show that contributions are positively correlated with both the match and the induced value of the public good even when a dominant strategy is free-riding. An implication of this partial demand revelation result is that manifestations of this type of “helping hand†social preference should be counted in benefit-cost analysis.matching grants, public goods, charitable giving, voluntary contributions, experimental economics, warm glow, helping hand, Environmental Economics and Policy, Public Economics,
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