THE IMPACTS OF WATERWAY USER FEES ON GRAIN TRANSPORTATION ON THE SNAKE-COLUMBIA RIVER1

ABSTRACT: Grain transportation is a major economic activity on the multiple use Snake-Columbia River System. Congress is currently considering increased transportation user fees aimed at recapturing federal expenditures for waterway operations and maintenance. Three types of fee structure and four levels of cost recovery are evaluated using a network program model. In each case traffic is diverted away from the river to other Puget Sound ports via truck and rail transport modes. Grain shippers in the region will be adversely affected by a higher transport bill. The Lower Columbia River port economic activities will be negatively affected; however, competitive uses of the river, recreation, and hydroelectric generation will likely benefit modestly.     

OPTIMAL GROUND WATER MANAGEMENT IN TWO-AQUIFER SYSTEMS1

ABSTRACT; This paper presents a numerical model for the prediction of optimal ground water withdrawal from a two-aquifer system by observing a set of constraints determined by the ecological conditions of the ground water basin. The aquifer system consists of an upper unconfined and a lower confined aquifer with a leaky stratum between them. It is assumed that water is withdrawn from the confined aquifer only, but the unconfined aquifer will also be affected due to the leakiness of the layer separating the upper and lower aquifers. Simulation and linear programming are employed for developing a computer model for the optimal management of such systems, with the objectives of determining withdrawal rates for predetermined ground water levels.     

A SEPARABLE LINEAR ALGORITHM FOR HYDROPOWER OPTIMIZATION1

ABSTRACT: A deterministic, separable, linear algorithm is presented for maximizing aggregate hydropower production. The method is iterative and amenable to solution using standard LP software. The utility of the technique is demonstrated using several test applications involving a hypothetical single-purpose hydropower reservoir and a monthly increment 20-year flow record from the Gunpowder River in Maryland. The separable linearized forms solved quickly using MPSX on a variety of IBM hardware: 3090-400 VF, 3084 QX, dual processor 4381-3, and an AT/370 personal computer. For comparison purposes, the original nonlinear nonseparable version of the model was also solved using MINOS. This yielded a value of aggregate hydropower marginally higher than that using MPSX. The separable, linearized methodology proved to be a useful and an efficient means of generating good starting points for MINOS. The use of these warm starts effected substantial reductions in MINOS execution times.     

The use of computer models in planning upland land use

The British Ecological Society has suggested that computer‐based techniques could be used in the coordination of policies across different land uses in upland planning. This paper looks briefly at one such technique — a linear programming model — and describes its use at a regional scale for the Sedburgh area in north‐west England. The paper concludes with consideration of why such models are not in more common use.     

Spatial based compromise programming for multiple criteria decision making in land use planning

Today, competing land use is continuing to occur in many developed regions. In the Agricultural Development Zone of Western Sydney Region, which is characterised by complex landscape patterns, land use competition is widespread. From a land use planning perspective, identification of suitable locations for a given type of land use is necessary for decision makers to formulate land use alternatives in different locations, based on existing land potential and constraints. For such a region, use of a simple method that implements a categorical system and considers only inherent land characteristics in the analysis is often inadequate to arrive at an optimal spatial decision. The primary aim of this paper is to develop spatial modelling procedures for agricultural land suitability analysis using compromise programming (CoPr) and fuzzy set approach within a geographical information systems (GIS) environment. Five main sets of spatial data for use as decision criteria were developed by using fuzzy set methodology: a land suitability index (LSI) for maximising the land productivity objective; an erosion tolerance index (ETI) for minimising the erosion risk objective; a runoff curve number (CN) for maximising the water discharge regulation objective; an accessibility (RP) measure for maximising the land accessibility objective; and the proximity to water body (WP) for minimising the water pollution objective. An L _p -metric was used in the analysis utilising different strategies with representative indices ranging from a situation where full tradeoff among criteria occurs to a noncompensatory condition. Different weighting combinations were also applied, and decision analysis was carried out by using values ranging from 0 to 1.0, where 1.0 is considered as an ideal point. The CoPr model demonstrated in this paper yielded a promising result, as several different techniques of sensitivity analysis show reasonably good results. Likewise, an overlay of that result with the present land use/land cover indicates a good corresponding spatial matching between existing land use (orchard and cultivated land), and the cells (land parcels) classified as the best in CoPr. The results are amenable to various map display techniques, either using continuous values or by defining different cut off points in the data space within a raster GIS environment.     

线性规划在滇池草海污染目标控制优化决策中的运用

滇池草海污染治理工程是一个复杂的系统，做好规划是保证工程治理效果和有效使用投资的前提。本文将综合治理目标和各决策变量建立函数关系，并将其分析归纳为线性规划问题，根据线性规划的求解原则求出了目标规划的优化方案。     

SOIL EROSION AND GROUND WATER POLLUTION TRADEOFFS FOR NONIRRIGATED FARMING SYSTEMS1

ABSTRACT: Traditional focus on reducing one environmental externality may cause another externality to increase. This article examines the environmental and economic costs of abating soil loss and (or) nitrate leaching through alternative optimal production systems in the nonirrigated farming systems of Northeastern Oregon. Models estimating soil loss and nitrate‐nitrogen leaching rates associated with current production processes, are linked to a Multi‐Objective Programming (MOP) model. The results show that site specific conditions influence the level of abatement expenditures and optimal production strategies to reduce soil loss and leaching rates. Moreover, while existing production strategies are effective in reducing soil loss at little cost, no strategies could be identified to reduce nitrate leaching rate on some soils.     

基于生态系统服务价值的土地利用结构优化——以重庆万州为例

基于中国陆地生态系统服务功能价值研究成果,以及重庆市万州区生态环境建设与经济社会发展水平,对不同土地利用类型单位面积生态服务价值进行修正,形成万州区土地利用结构优化灰色线性规划模型中决策变量的生态经济参数。计算结果表明：（1）规划期内万州区耕地面积略有减少,建设用地面积有所增加,林地面积有较大幅度增加,大规模增加湿地面积提高土地生态功能价值则难以实现;（2）地质灾害与水土流失综合治理、草地生态系统修复以及适当增加园地面积,能够提高万州区土地生态功能价值;（3）万州区土地生态经济理论价值为11888亿元/a,修正价值为10644亿元/a,均高于现状值9653亿元/a,土地生态修复与建设的生态经济效益可观;（4）基于生态系统服务价值的土地利用结构优化,能够满足社会经济发展对土地的需求并同步实现生态经济效益的最优,为解决土地利用规划中的关键技术问题提供新的方法。     

Inexact rough-interval two-stage stochastic programming for conjunctive water allocation problems

An inexact rough-interval two-stage stochastic programming (IRTSP) method is developed for conjunctive water allocation problems. Rough intervals (RIs), as a particular case of rough sets, are introduced into the modeling framework to tackle dual-layer information provided by decision makers. Through embeding upper and lower approximation intervals, rough intervals are capable of reflecting complex parameters with the most reliable and possible variation ranges being identified. An interactive solution method is also derived. A conjunctive water-allocation system is then structured for characterizing the proposed model. Solutions indicate a detailed optimal allocation scheme with a rough-interval form; a total of [[1048.83, 2078.29]:[1482.26, 2020.60]] would be obtained under the pre-regulated inputs. Comparisons of the proposed model to a conventional and an interval two-stage stochastic programming model are also conducted. The results indicate that the optimal objective function values of TSP and ITSP always fall into the range of , while they are sometimes out of the range of ; the optimal solutions of decision variables also present this feature. This implies the reliability of IRTSP in handling conjunctive water allocation problems.     

A Routing and Scheduling System for Infectious Waste Collection

Most hospitals and clinics in Taiwan do not have on-site treatment facilities for their infectious waste and must rely on outside agencies for their collection and treatment. The problem of optimally routing and scheduling the collection of medical waste from a disperse group of facilities is recognized as a periodic vehicle routing problem. This study develops a computer system to solve the resulting optimization problem based on a two-phased approach proposed earlier. The first phase solves a standard vehicle routing problem to determine a set of individual routes for the collection vehicles. The second phase uses a mixed integer programming method to assign routes to particular days of the week. The computer system is user-friendly and consists of several Visual Basic programs while the geographical information system is incorporated to facilitate input and output interface and database management. An illustrative example for the infectious waste of 348 hospitals in the Tainan City area demonstrates the effectiveness of the system.