| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: Decisionmaking associated with the Nation's 1.7 billion acres of forest and range land has become increasingly complicated because of the rise in competition for resource use and in the awareness of environmental and social effects. This system analysis approach uses four models to synthesize pertinent masses of information into measures of economic, environmental, and social impacts. The system results can be used to help evaluate alternative national programs. The models are: - ? The National Interregional Multiresource Use Model uses linear programming to allocate national and regional demands for renewable resource uses on the land base. This model minimizes operational costs of alternative programs while achieving environmental restraints, range production, sustained wood yield, and wilderness.
- ? The second model evaluates regional employment and earnings triggered by a national program.
- ? The third model, Futures Foregone, keeps count of future options lost in terms of the amount affecting citizens groups, rate of impact, and length of impact.
- ? The last model, Social Conflict, operates on the postulate that there will be proponents and opponents for any resource use and that some degree of conflict is inevitable. The model uses impact information including that generated from previous models and serves to quantify the amount and pattern of conflict.
The system serves to unify the four models in the context of evaluating cost effective alternatives against criteria of demands, environmental restraints, employment and income maintenance, minimizing loss of future options, and minimizing conflict patterns that damage community stability. |
