First-best, second-best, and heuristic solutions in conservation reserve site selection

Hayri Önal

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Previous studies which dealt with the conservation reserve site selection problem used either optimization methods, specifically linear integer programming (IP), or heuristic algorithms. The trade-off between computational efficiency versus optimality has been discussed in some articles and conflicting messages were signaled. Although the problem of suboptimality was acknowledged, some authors argued that heuristics may be preferable to exact optimization because IP models are computationally complex and may not be solvable when too many reserve sites are involved. On the other hand, some studies reported that fairly large problems could be solved easily. This paper shows that although the computational complexity argument can be valid for large reserve selection problems, by properly guiding the solver and exploiting the problem structure, formal optimization can deliver second-best (near-optimal) solutions that dominate the greedy heuristic solutions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)55-62
Number of pages8
JournalBiological Conservation
Volume115
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2004

Keywords

  • Exact optimum
  • Heuristic
  • Integer programming
  • Reserve selection
  • Second-best

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Nature and Landscape Conservation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'First-best, second-best, and heuristic solutions in conservation reserve site selection'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this