COMPUTER ASSISTED NEGOTIATION OF MULTIOBJECTIVE WATER RESOURCES CONFLICTS1

ABSTRACT: Since the early 1970s, a large volume of literature has accumulated related to multiobjective water resources management problems. A relatively small portion of this specifically addresses the negotiation process required when there are multiple decision makers with conflicting objectives. This paper focuses on that process and describes a computer program designed to assist such negotiation processes. This interactive computer assisted negotiation support system is called ICANS. ICANS is designed for dynamic, multi-issue, multi-party negotiation problems. Based on information provided in confidence by each party via an interactive graphical interface, the program can help determine if there exist any possible alternatives that are equivalent or even preferred to each party's decision in the absence of a negotiated agreement. If such alternatives exist, through a series of iterations in which each party's input data, assumptions, and preferences may change, ICANS can assist the parties in their search for a mutually acceptable and preferred agreement. A simple example illustrates the data requirements and the use of ICANS in negotiation experiments.     

PERSISTENT CONFLICTS OVER TIMBER PRODUCTION AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENP: A PROBLEM ANALYSIS1

ABSTRACT: Most forest lands are managed for multiple purposes, among them timber production and water supply. Conflicts often arise in such cases because logging is perceived as a threat to water quality. These conflicts can result from uncertain factual information, from differences in underlying social values, or from imbalances in the incidence of costs and benefits. Resulting conificts may go unresolved because existing institutional structures fail to address the real roots of the dispute. When such conificts go unresolved, benefits are often lost, and social, political, and managerial costs are high. This study found that the roots of conifict may lie in value differences or in interest impacts, but attention may be focused inappropriately and unproductively on factual issues. It suggests that at least some long-standing disputes in the management of forested watersheds may be resolved by identifying the root causes of these disputes and choosing those actions, whether they be changes in management guidelines or altered institutional structures, which are appropriate to those causes.     

Public and Private Compromises in Agricultural Water Management

Agricultural water management is a complex decision-making problem involving multiple criteria of different nature as well as multiple decision agents with different interests. To handle this multiplicity of objectives and interests a pragmatic approach based on compromise programming is proposed in this paper. The methodology is applied to an agricultural water management problem in Tauste, Spain. Public, environmentalist and private decision makers are considered. The approach proposed reveals itself as a pragmatic alternative to other approaches based on aggregate utility functions with very sound theoretical underpinnings but with few possibilities of actually being put into practice.     

MAXIMIZING THE VALUE OF INFORMATION FOR GROUND WATER PROTECTION: THREE TEST CASES1

ABSTRACT: Public awareness of the importance of protecting the nation's water supplies is growing. Recent studies have shown a substantial increase in the perceived value of protecting water supplies for future use. In the Northeast, much of the water supply comes from ground water. This paper examines three test cases, each with different approaches for using geographic information systems (GIS) for ground water protection planning. In Wellfleet, Massachusetts, build-out scenarios were used to support regulatory and land acquisition decisions for siting a public water supply well. In Hadley, Massachusetts, the focus was on a decision support model for septic suitability assessment in support of regulatory efforts and infrastructure expansion. For Cortland County, New York, an interactive graphic user interface was created to facilitate the manipulation and recombination of a large volume of data by county officials to target ground water pollution prevention efforts. As personal computers become more powerful and inexpensive, and GIS data become more readily available, community and county governments are turning to GIS as a tool for developing comprehensive resource protection plans. Once appropriate data are input, a GIS can effectively and efficiently be used to derive outcomes of various land use plans and regulations.     

Linking Multiple Accounts with GIS as Decision Support System to Resolve Forestry/Wildlife Conflicts

With shrinking forest resources and increasing demands for timber, conflicts between forestry and wildlife become more contentious and more frequent. New decision support methods are needed to address complex multiple land use conflicts. Multiple accounts methods linked with GIS and production models enable us to address trade-offs between timber and non-timber values, thus facilitating the evaluation and comparison of different management scenarios in a rapid and spatially referenced manner. The approach is documented in a case study in the trans-boundary zone between two national parks in British Columbia, where caribou/logging conflicts are widespread.     

REVISITING STATE WATER RIGHTS LAW1

ABSTRACT: Water resources professionals should be engaged actively in revisiting state water rights law. During the past four years, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers with cooperation of other water resources organizations, over a hundred engineers, hydrologists, geographers, lawyers, administrators, educators, water users, and other persons interested in water law have been preparing a Model State Water Rights Code. Preliminary drafts of the Model Code have been considered in four states, and its provisions will be disseminated nationally to state legislators and other policy makers upon formal publication in September 1994. The Model Code gathers the best provisions from state water laws into comprehensive regulated riparian and prior appropriation provisions, includes commentaries explaining how its textual sections address water resources planning and management issues, and references similar language in current state water statutes. The goal of the Code Project is to provide materials which will assist legislators so they can enact effective, efficient, and equitable water laws. In the future, the Code drafting group will expand its efforts to develop legal guidelines for allocating shared transboundary water resources, water quality law, federal water statutes, and other water resources legal issues.     

毁林与汉代居延垦区的衰落

本文根据历史史料，阐明了汉代居延垦区由兴旺发达到衰落的历史原因。进一步说明了乱破滥伐森林带来的恶果。开发大自然必须遵循自然规律，切不可盲目蛮干，毫无克制。     

USING VALUES IN PLANNING WASTEWATER FACILITIES FOR METROPOLITAN SEATTLE1

ABSTRACT: This paper uses the fundamental values of decision makers to guide a long-term wastewater planning process at Seattle Metro, a major utility district. Multiattribute value assessment is used to elicit the objectives of several elected officials and other key decision makers. The results are structured into a fundamental objectives hierarchy and a means-ends objectives network. A set of measures to indicate the performance of planning alternatives in terms of the fundamental objectives is developed. Preliminary value tradeoffs between objectives are elicited from several elected officials. The results of these steps are useful for many aspects of long-term planning: facilitating communication about values and priorities; designing attractive alternatives that are more likely to serve stakeholder interests; identifying information needed to evaluate alternatives; clarifying the relative importance of information about different impacts; providing a basis for quantitative evaluation of the alternatives with multiple objective analysis; and focusing attention on key tradeoffs that will affect the choice of alternatives.     

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' WATER KNOWLEDGE1

ABSTRACT: This study examines the social construction of county commissioners' knowledge about water. Factors that influence what commissioners know about water include each commissioner's personal characteristics, education, experience in natural resources management, involvement in policy making, and use and evaluation of various sources of information. This study focused on county commissioners representing rural, mixed, and urban counties in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah and collected data through mail surveys and interviews. County commissioners in the survey were well educated; however, few had taken college courses directly addressing technical, management, or legal aspects of water issues. Approximately one-third had direct experience in farming and ranching; nearly two-thirds indicated that farming and ranching played a major role in their communities. Respondents had experience with a broad range of water policy issues. In evaluating thirteen information sources in terms of their frequency of use, relevancy, and reliability, respondents assessed fellow commissioners and local government staff and managers most positively and nonprofit organizations most negatively. The media was also broadly rated as less relevant and reliable than other sources of information. The commissioners in the study expressed a high level of general concern about water issues and a strung preference for local sources of information.     

THE DETERMINATION OF AN OPTIMAL POLICY FOR PROTECTING GROUND WATER QUALITY1

ABSTRACT: An analytical framework is presented that identifies the tradeoffa that a regional authority desiring to enhance ground water quality is confronted with as it strives to balance the preferences of farmers and households while endeavoring to maximize net regional welfare. The basic rule developed indicates that the regional authority must choose a policy whereby any increase (decrease) in regional income is just equal to the decrease (increase) in net benefits to households.