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Applying Optimization and the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Enhance Agricultural Preservation Strategies in the State of Delaware

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Kent D. Messer  and
William L. Allen III
Kent D. Messer
Affiliation:
Department of Food and Resource Economics and the Department of Economics at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware
William L. Allen III
Affiliation:
The Conservation Fund in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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Abstract

Using 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 $100 million in its first decade. This research demonstrates how these operation research techniques can be used in concert to address relevant conservation questions. Results suggest that the state's sealed-bid-offer auction, which determines the yearly conservation selections, is superior to benefit-targeting approaches frequently employed by conservation organizations, but is inferior to the optimization technique of binary linear programming that could have provided additional benefits to the state, such as 12,000 additional acres worth an estimated $25 million.

Keywords

conservation optimizationfarmland protectionanalytic hierarchy processbinary linear programming
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , October 2010 , pp. 442 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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