Amenity driven price effects and conservation reserve site selection: A dynamic linear integer programming approach

Sahan T.M. Dissanayake, Hayri Önal

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Most conservation reserve design models presented in the literature are static and ignore the dynamic economic aspects of site selection. Typically conservation programs operate under time-related (e.g. annual) budgets and purchase land over time in a sequential manner. The uncertainty of land development has been incorporated in a few dynamic reserve selection formulations using stochastic dynamic programming. However, the existing formulations do not explicitly deal with inter-temporal price and location linkages. We address this issue here and present a two-period linear integer programming model for conservation reserve design that incorporates amenity driven price feedback effects inherent in the reserve development problem. In addition, the model includes spatial and ecological criteria. We then use this model to answer the question "How suboptimal is ignoring amenity driven price effects in reserve design models?" We apply the model to artificially generated data sets and compare the results with the results of an iterated static model that considers only one period at a time. We find that the dynamic model with price feedback effects selects sites at a lower per-site cost. The policy implication of this finding is that conservation programs should avoid purchasing land in the same neighborhood over multiple time periods.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2225-2235
Number of pages11
JournalEcological Economics
Volume70
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 15 2011

Keywords

  • Amenity price effects
  • Biological conservation
  • Integer programming
  • Reserve design
  • Site selection
  • Uncertainty

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science(all)
  • Economics and Econometrics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Amenity driven price effects and conservation reserve site selection: A dynamic linear integer programming approach'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this