A dynamic model for intertemporal allocation of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest

Across the globe, continued policy debates regarding the management of old-growth forests center around the difficult task of balancing economic and ecological considerations. Though the forests of the Pacific Northwest United States are among the most studied old-growth ecosystems, ecological and economic analyses have yielded public land management directives that remain controversial. Specifically, the recently adopted Northwest Forest Plan lacks explicit goals for maintaining intergenerational equity for the use of forest resources and the diversity of old-growth ecosystems. Unlike previous studies which rely on monetary quantification of costs and benefits, this study develops and applies a conceptual framework for evaluating socially optimal Pacific Northwest old-growth forest utilization strategies. Conditions for the optimal management of old-growth forests are derived using dynamic programming. The objective function synthesizes relevant biological and economic attributes of the old-growth allocation problem. Results in the form of extraction paths are compared given social pressure for consumptive and non-consumptive benefits, as well as different planning horizons, rates of social time preference, and environmental variance. Lengthening the planning horizon results in a vast divergence of optimal policies in the absence of discounting. Extraction rates appear to approach zero as the planning horizon approaches infinity. While higher rates of social time preference increase the rate of extraction, forest stocks remaining at the terminal time period equal levels remaining with a lower discount rate. Increasing environmental variance results in a higher level of stock remaining at the terminal time period. This analysis, while specific to the old-growth controversy of the Pacific Northwest, does provide general guidelines for addressing similar problems of multiple uses of natural areas, particularly where such uses are mutually incompatible, or where one use may be irreversibly destructive to another.     

MULTICRITERIA PROGRAMMING OF WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS FOR RURAL AREAS1

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to present a multicriteria methodology for decision aid at the stage of programming a water supply system (WSS) for a rural area. The programming stage is an intermediate one between planning and designing water supply facilities, and can be decomposed into two problems: (a) setting up a priority order of water users, taking into account socio-economic criteria; and (b) choosing the best technical variant of the WSS. Among the criteria considered for the latter problem, there is a criterion of distance between the socio-economic priorities of users and the precedence orders of users according to the technical programming, which plays a coordinating role between problems (a) and (b). All steps of the presented methodology are illustrated by a real case study.     

MULTIOBJECTIVE DECISION MAKING TECHNIQUES FOR RESERVOIR OPERATION1

ABSTRACT: Six applications of multiobjective decision making techniques for finding optimal or satisfying operating rules for reservoir systems are presented. The examples include situations with hydropower vs. water supply (for irrigation), flood control vs. low flow augmentation, selection of an operating rule, low-flow vs. reliability, and low flow and recreation vs. water quality. The techniques applied include the constraint method, compromise programming, goal programming, Tchebycheff approach (max-mm), Consensus, and ELECTRE I and II.     

MULTIOBJECTWE OPTIMIZATION OF RESERVOIR SYSTEMS OPERATION1

ABSTRACT: Development of optimal operational policies for large-scale reservoir systems is often complicated by a multiplicity of conflicting project uses and purposes. A wide range of multiobjective optimization methods are available for appraising tradeoffs between conificting objectives. The purpose of this study is to provide guidance as to those methods which are best suited to dealing with the challenging large-scale, nonlinear, dynamic, and stochastic characteristics of multireservoir system operations. As a case study, the selected methodologies are applied to the Han River Reservoir System in Korea for four principal project objectives: water supply and low flow augmentation; annual hydropower production, reliable energy generation, and minimization of risk of violating firm water supply requirements. Additional objectives such as flood control are also considered, but are imposed as fixed constraints.     

IMPROVED RIVER BASIN UTILIZATION THROUGH SYSTEMS ANALYSIS1

ABSTRACT. Theoretical and practical results are summarized for a study to determine optimal water resource allocation in a proposed water conservancy district. The area of this district, which covers several river basins, contains a large number of existing and proposed facilities such as reservoirs and diversions. The operation of all of these facilities was to be determined along with the sizing of the proposed facilities in order to optimize given objective functions. Related efforts in optimal river basin utilization were surveyed, and linear programming was selected as an expedient optimization technique. The problem is formulated by identifying time stages which together constitute a repetitive cycle such as a year. With these stages, it is possible to associate operational and capacity variables with network components, which are branches and nodes. Objective functions are assembled for the component variables. Constraint equations are written in terms of the variables to reflect network nodal continuity, capacity restrictions, and adjudications such as water rights. A numerical example is considered in which the existing and proposed facilities are aggregated to produce a small, tractable number of facilities. This paper examines the example results and suggests future improvements for models of this type.     

SOME CONJUNCTIVE DESALTING STUDIES EN THE UNITED KINGDOM1

ABSTRACT .Operating rule procedures are developed for the optimal use of desalination in conjunction with surface water impoundments. Results obtained from the use of hill-climbing and dynamic programming methods are compared. Benefits to be obtained from the integrated use of desalination are demonstrated through a case study for the Barcelona area of Spain.     

LINEAR PROGRAMMING APPLICATIONS IN WATER RESOURCES1

Applications of linear programming to water quality and water quantity problems are discussed, and a fairly comprehensive sample of recent literature in these areas is reviewed. Basic elements of linear programming are also discussed. Emphasis is placed on the elements of linear programming that make it a useful tool for analyzing water resource problems and the basic features of various water resource problems that render them amenable to meaningful analysis by linear programming.     

森林可持续经营基本任务与实现途径

本文以区域可持续发展理论为指导,通过森林可持续经营内涵、目标的分析,提出了用于指导区域森林可持续经营研究与实践的基本思路和途径     

阜康市生态旅游规划研究

生态旅游规划是生态示范区规划的重要组成部分。本文以天池风景区规划为例阐述生态旅游规划应突破以风景区为主单一的旅游景观格局,应根据景观生态学原理、旅游地理学和旅游经济学理论,按照景观格局的梯度性变化为依据,以增长旅游线路、丰富景区类型、提高旅游收入为内容,以保护景区资源、开发景区资源为目标,开展基于发展“大旅游”思想的以沈域为单元的全面战略性规划,为实现阜康产业结构调整、增强区域经济实力提供依据。     

Environmental indices in irrigation management

Irrigation management calls for objective criteria capable of representing the economy, reliability, and productivity of irrigation systems. These criteria must be compatible with long-term sustainability and conservation goals. The criteria representing the above goals are the economic effect of management on yield reduction, economic effect, and reliability referring to plant growth and operation of the network. In this study environmental indices are introduced to express the above criteria in quantitative terms. The inclusion of these indices at the farm and network level create a multicriteria framework for decision-making based on composite programming. An experimental study was conducted during the irrigation periods of 1989 and 1990 in Chania, Greece, concerning water delivered to 40 experimental plots, soil moisture content at the rootzone, and irrigation system operational failures. The data collected in real time were used for the calculation of the corresponding environmental indices. The variation in time and space is high and resulted in up to 62% of yield loss and low system performance (up to 7% of system temporal reliability). The study indicated that environmental indices could be incorporated to select alternatives and also to develop policies on water delivery. The final decision involves a trade-off analysis between cost of application and desired system performance. Measures of both primary objectives can be obtained using environmental indices that represent system operation aggregation at its basic levels (on farm and network).