objects/where-to-put-things.html

Where to Put Things: A study of land use planning in the Willamette Valley

Purpose of the study

• Purpose was to search for efficient land-use patterns
• it may be possible to get high biodiversity and generating economic returns
• efficiency "frontier" is the highest match of biodivesity and economic returns
  • inside the frontier - not efficient
  • can improve in either direction without loss of value in the other
• 9 land use categories from farming to urban to conservation
• for biodiversity - landscape connectivity index provides value
• assumes there are no economic returns from conservation
  • but could include ecosystem services

Comparison of multiple objectives

tradeoffs

• red - linear tradeoff
• blue - interference
• green - synergism

Study area was the Willamette Valley

possible land uses

• Agriculture
• Managed forestry
• UGB
• Rural residential
• Conserved wild areas

Utilitity calculations for different scenarios and mixtures of land use

possible outcomes

• upper left
• lower right
• point I -- below the surface -
  • could improve economy with no loss to biodiversity or
  • could improve biodiversity with no loss to economic activity

 

Notes to accompany the article

Notes to accompany the figures in the article

• Figure 1 - orienting map
• Figure 2 - efficiency frontier and current estimates of location in biodiversity vs. economic space
• Figure 3 - Willamette valley patterns
• Figure 4 - Corvallis area