Habitat and Open Space at Risk of Land-Use Conversion: Targeting Strategies for Land Conservation |
| |
| Authors: | David A. Newburn Peter Berck Adina M. Merenlender |
| |
| Affiliation: | David A. Newburn is postdoctoral fellow and Peter Berck is professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley;and Adina M. Merenlender is cooperative extension specialist, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley. Senior authorship is shared by David Newburn and Peter Berck. |
| |
| Abstract: | Funds available to purchase land and easements for conservation purposes are limited. This article provides a targeting strategy for protecting multiple environmental benefits that includes heterogeneity in land costs and probability of land-use conversion, by incorporating spatially explicit land-use change and hedonic price models. This strategy is compared to two alternative strategies that omit either land cost or conversion threat. Based on dynamic programming and Monte Carlo simulations with alternating periods of conservation and development, we demonstrate that the positive correlation between land costs and probability of land-use conversion affects targeting efficiency using parcel data from Sonoma County, California. |
| |
| Keywords: | dynamic programming land-use change reserve site selection |
|
|
