TY - RPRT
TI - Empirical insight into Section 10 permitting under the Endangered Species Act
AU - Galik, C.S.
AU - Bowman, J.T.
A3 - Duke University
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
M1 - NI WP 14-02
PB - Duke University
SN - NI WP 14-02
ER -
TY - RPRT
TI - Biogas in the United States: An assessment of market potential in a carbon-constrained future
AU - Murray, B.C.
AU - Galik, C.S.
AU - Vegh, T.
A3 - Duke University
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
M1 - NI R 14-02
PB - Duke University
SN - NI R 14-02
ER -
TY - RPRT
TI - Effect of policies on pellet production and forests in the U.S. South: a technical document supporting the Forest Service update of the 2010 RPA Assessment
AU - Abt, Karen L.
AU - Abt, Robert C.
AU - Galik, Christopher S.
AU - Skog, Kenneth E.
A3 - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.2737/srs-gtr-202
PB - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2737/srs-gtr-202
DB - Crossref
ER -
TY - CHAP
TI - The Travel Cost Model
AU - von Haefen, Roger H.
T2 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: An Encyclopedia
A2 - Haab, T.C.
A2 - Whitehead, J.C.
A2 - Caviglia, J.L.
PY - 2014///
PB - Greenwood
SN - 9781440801198 9781440801204
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Are hydropower and irrigation development complements or substitutes? The example of the Nam Ngum River in the Mekong Basin
AU - Lacombe, G.
AU - Douangsavanh, S.
AU - Baker, J.
AU - Hoanh, C.T.
AU - Bartlett, R.
AU - Jeuland, M.
AU - Phongpachith, C.
T2 - Water International
AB - Hydropower and irrigation developments to address rising demand for food and energy are modifying the water balance of the Mekong Basin. Infrastructure investment decisions are also frequently made from a sub-catchment perspective. This paper compares river flows with irrigation development stages in the Nam Ngum sub-basin where the potential for irrigation and hydropower expansion is largely untapped. It shows that full hydropower development in this basin allows irrigation water use to triple, even as it reduces competition with environmental flow requirements. The implications for the wider Mekong are, however, unclear, particularly given uncertainty over parallel transformations elsewhere in the basin.
DA - 2014/7/29/
PY - 2014/7/29/
DO - 10.1080/02508060.2014.956205
VL - 39
IS - 5
SP - 649-670
J2 - Water International
LA - en
OP -
SN - 0250-8060 1941-1707
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2014.956205
DB - Crossref
KW - water resources development
KW - water balance
KW - optimization/simulation model
KW - Mekong
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins
AU - Jeuland, Marc
AU - Baker, Justin
AU - Bartlett, Ryan
AU - Lacombe, Guillaume
T2 - Environmental Research Letters
AB - Though there are surprisingly few estimates of the economic benefits of coordinated infrastructure development and operations in international river basins, there is a widespread belief that improved cooperation is beneficial for managing water scarcity and variability. Hydro-economic optimization models are commonly-used for identifying efficient allocation of water across time and space, but such models typically assume full coordination. In the real world, investment and operational decisions for specific projects are often made without full consideration of potential downstream impacts. This paper describes a tractable methodology for evaluating the economic benefits of infrastructure coordination. We demonstrate its application over a range of water availability scenarios in a catchment of the Mekong located in Lao PDR, the Nam Ngum River Basin. Results from this basin suggest that coordination improves system net benefits from irrigation and hydropower by approximately 3–12% (or US$12-53 million/yr) assuming moderate levels of flood control, and that the magnitude of coordination benefits generally increases with the level of water availability and with inflow variability. Similar analyses would be useful for developing a systematic understanding of the factors that increase the costs of non-cooperation in river basin systems worldwide, and would likely help to improve targeting of efforts to stimulate complicated negotiations over water resources.
DA - 2014/10/1/
PY - 2014/10/1/
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/9/10/105006
VL - 9
IS - 10
SP - 105006
J2 - Environ. Res. Lett.
OP -
SN - 1748-9326
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/10/105006
DB - Crossref
KW - hydroeconomic models
KW - water resources planning and management
KW - cooperation
KW - reservoir coordination
KW - irrigation
KW - hydropower
KW - Mekong
ER -
TY - CHAP
TI - REDD+ on the ground: The need for scientific evidence
AU - Sunderlin, W.D.
AU - Pratama, C.D.
AU - Bos, A.B.
AU - Avitabile, V.
AU - Sills, E.
AU - Sassi, C.
AU - Joseph, S.
AU - Agustavia, M.
AU - Pribadi, U.A.
AU - Anandadas, A.
T2 - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe
A2 - Sills, E.
PY - 2014///
PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
ER -
TY - CHAP
TI - REDD+ in-depth costing
AU - Marinho, E.
AU - Greenberg, N.
AU - Kweka, D.L.
AU - Sills, E.
T2 - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe
A2 - Sills, E.
PY - 2014///
PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
ER -
TY - CHAP
TI - REDD+ on the ground: Global insights from local contexts
AU - de Sassi, C.
AU - Sunderlin, W.D.
AU - Sills, E.O.
AU - Duchelle, A.E.
AU - Ravikumar, A.
AU - Luttrell, C.
AU - Atmadja, S.
T2 - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe.
A2 - Sills, Erin
PY - 2014///
PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
ER -
TY - CHAP
TI - Economics of the Evolution of the Amazon Frontier
AU - Sills, E.
T2 - Handbook of Forest Resource Economics
A2 - Kant, S.
A2 - Alavalapati, J.
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.4324/9780203105290
PB - Routledge
ER -
TY - CHAP
TI - Forestry
AU - Sills, E.
T2 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: An Encyclopedia
A2 - Haab, Timothy C.
A2 - Whitehead, John Claiborne
A2 - Caviglia, Jill L.
PY - 2014///
PB - Greenwood/Praeger
ER -
TY - BOOK
TI - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe
A3 - Sills, E.O.
A3 - Atmadja, S.
A3 - de Sassi, C.
A3 - Duchelle, A.E.
A3 - Kweka, D.
A3 - Resosudarmo, I.A.P.
A3 - Sunderlin, W.D.
AB - REDD+ is one of the leading near-term options for global climate change mitigation. More than 300 subnational REDD+ initiatives have been launched across the tropics, responding to both the call for demonstration activities in the Bali Action Plan and the market for voluntary carbon offset credits.
This book describes 23 initiatives in six different countries, including their:
- diverse biogeographic and socioeconomic contexts
- strategies to reduce emissions over the three or more years that they have been in operation
- local populations of smallholders, whose agricultural activities are important drivers of deforestation in most sites and who are thus key stakeholders in these initiatives
- efforts to overcome or work around challenges in financing, implementing and monitoring REDD+
Early expectations of significant funding for REDD+ encouraged proponent organizations to test a wide range of strategies to reduce emissions while also delivering co-benefits. Only some have chosen the strategy of direct payments conditional on actions to reduce deforestation or degradation, and only a very few have sold carbon credits, demonstrating how REDD+ on the ground is actually a mix of old and new strategies.
Faced with enormous challenges, proponents have developed a menu of ways to: secure financial support; clarify forest tenure; cooperate and act across scales; measure, report and verify emissions; and respond to the imperative of safeguarding local livelihoods.
While subnational initiatives have successfully piloted and generated lessons for REDD+, many now face the choice of either ending or transforming into something else, due to the political uncertainty and funding constraints stemming from the failure to reach a global climate change agreement. This book highlights both the critical importance of such an agreement and in its absence, the creative ways that subnational initiatives are operating on the ground.
Contents
Executive summary Part 1. Introduction
1 REDD+ on the ground: The need for scientific evidence Part 2. Case reports
BRAZIL
2 Acre's State System of Incentives for Environmental Services (SISA), Brazil
3 Bolsa Floresta, Brazil
4 Cotriguaçu Sempre Verde, Brazil: Conservation and sustainable management of natural resources
5 Jari/Amapá REDD+ Project, Brazil
6 Sustainable Landscapes Pilot Program in São Félix do Xingu, Brazil
7 Sustainable Settlements in the Amazon, Brazil PERU
8 The REDD Project in Brazil Nut Concessions in Madre de Dios, Peru
9 Valuation of Environmental Services in the Managed Forests of Seven Indigenous Communities in Ucayali, Peru CAMEROON
10 REDD+ around Mount Cameroon, southwest region of Cameroon
11 Community Payments for Ecosystem Services in the south and east regions of Cameroon TANZANIA
12 Building REDD Readiness in the Masito Ugalla Ecosystem Pilot Area in Support of Tanzania’s National REDD Strategy
13 Piloting REDD in Zanzibar Through Community Forest Management, Tanzania
14 Making REDD Work for Communities and Forest Conservation in Tanzania
15 Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative: Combining REDD, PFM and FSC certification in southeastern Tanzania
16 Pilot project on Community-Based REDD Mechanisms for Sustainable Forest Management in Semiarid Areas: The Case of Ngitilis in the Shinyanga Region, Tanzania INDONESIA
17 Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
18 Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
19 Ketapang Community Carbon Pools, West Kalimantan, Indonesia
20 Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve Project, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
21 TNC's initiative within the Berau Forest Carbon Program, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
22 Ulu Masen REDD+ initiative, Aceh, Indonesia VIETNAM
23 Cat Loc Landscape – Cat Tien National Park Pro-Poor REDD+ Project, Vietnam Part 3. Synthesis
24 REDD+ on the ground: Global insights from local contexts
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.17528/cifor/005202
SP - 505
PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.17528/cifor/005202
ER -
TY - ENCYC
TI - The Travel Cost Model
AU - Haefen
AU - H, Roger
T2 - Greenwood
A2 - Haab, T.
A2 - J.
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
PB - Whitehead, Greenwood Publishing
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - A new look at residential electricity demand using household expenditure data
AU - Fell, Harrison
AU - Li, Shanjun
AU - Paul, Anthony
T2 - International Journal of Industrial Organization
AB - Many electricity demand estimates have been obtained based on the assumption that consumers optimize with respect to known marginal prices, but increasing empirical evidence suggests that consumers are more likely to respond to average prices. Under this assumption, this paper develops a new strategy based on Generalized Method of Moments to estimate household electricity demand. Our demand estimation approach uses publicly available expenditure data and utility-level consumption data from several major U.S. cities, complementing studies that use individual billing data which are richer yet often proprietary. We estimate the price elasticity near − 0.50, which is at the upper end (in magnitude) among the estimates from previous studies. This could have important implications for policy analysis such as those on climate policies that may affect electricity prices.
DA - 2014/3//
PY - 2014/3//
DO - 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2014.02.001
VL - 33
SP - 37-47
J2 - International Journal of Industrial Organization
LA - en
OP -
SN - 0167-7187
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2014.02.001
DB - Crossref
KW - Electricity demand
KW - CEX
KW - GMM
KW - Cap-and-trade
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Can decentralized planning really achieve first-best in the presence of environmental spillovers?
AU - Fell, Harrison
AU - Kaffine, Daniel T.
T2 - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
AB - It is generally accepted that decentralized policy choice in the presence of interjurisdictional spillovers is inefficient. Strikingly, Ogawa and Wildasin (2009) find that in a model with heterogenous jurisdictions, interjurisdictional capital flows, and interjurisdictional environmental damage spillovers, decentralized planning outcomes are equivalent to that under a centralized planner. We first show the critical importance of two key assumptions (no retirement of capital, fixed environmental damages per unit of capital) in obtaining this result. Second, we consider a more general model allowing for capital retirement and abatement activities and show that the outcome of a decentralized market generally differs from the solution of a centralized planner׳s social welfare-maximizing problem.
DA - 2014/7//
PY - 2014/7//
DO - 10.1016/j.jeem.2014.04.001
VL - 68
IS - 1
SP - 46-53
J2 - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
LA - en
OP -
SN - 0095-0696
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2014.04.001
DB - Crossref
KW - Fiscal federalism
KW - Environmental spillovers
KW - Abatement
KW - Environmental policy
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Alternative approaches for addressing non-permanence in carbon projects: an application to afforestation and reforestation under the Clean Development Mechanism
AU - Galik, Christopher S.
AU - Murray, Brian C.
AU - Mitchell, Stephen
AU - Cottle, Phil
T2 - Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change
DA - 2014/5/19/
PY - 2014/5/19/
DO - 10.1007/s11027-014-9573-4
VL - 21
IS - 1
SP - 101-118
J2 - Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change
LA - en
OP -
SN - 1381-2386 1573-1596
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/S11027-014-9573-4
DB - Crossref
KW - Afforestation
KW - Carbon
KW - Clean Development Mechanism
KW - Insurance
KW - Non-permanence
KW - Reforestation
KW - Temporary credit
ER -
TY - CHAP
TI - Occupational and Environmental Health Impacts from Mining in Orissa, India
AU - Sanglimsuwan, Karnjana
AU - Sills, Erin O.
AU - Pattanayak, Subhrendu K.
AU - Saha, Shubhayu
AU - Singha, Ashok
AU - Sahoo, Barendra
T2 - Environment and Development Economics
AB - Mining brings jobs and economic development, but also significant health impacts. This chapter provides empirical estimates of the environmental health impacts of mining in Orissa, India. People working in the mine are found to be more vulnerable to respiratory diseases, but less vulnerable to fever. People living near the mine, by contrast, are found to be more vulnerable to waterborne diseases and fever. The implication is that mining development needs to be supported by cost-benefit analysis, and accompanied by appropriate regulation.
PY - 2014/4/17/
DO - 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677856.003.0015
SP - 310-331
OP -
PB - Oxford University Press
SN - 9780199677856
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677856.003.0015
DB - Crossref
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Detecting and interpreting secondary forest on an old Amazonian frontier
AU - Caviglia-Harris, Jill L.
AU - Toomey, Michael
AU - Harris, Daniel W.
AU - Mullan, Katrina
AU - Bell, Andrew Reid
AU - Sills, Erin O.
AU - Roberts, Dar A.
T2 - Journal of Land Use Science
AB - Land uses that replace tropical forests are important determinants of terrestrial carbon storage and biodiversity. This includes secondary forest growth after deforestation, which has been integrated into the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) concept as a means to enhance current forest carbon stocks. Incorporating secondary forest into climate change mitigation efforts requires both accurate measurements and a means to target interventions to achieve additionality. We demonstrate how remote sensing and household survey data can be combined to meet these requirements in ‘old frontiers’ of the Brazilian Amazon and introduce the idea that annual land-cover transitions − measured at the pixel level and over time − can serve as leading indicators of secondary forest regrowth. The patterns we observe are consistent with the suggested tension between equity and additionality in REDD+: the poorest households on the poorest quality lots already allow forest regeneration. Policy interventions to encourage regeneration are likely to have the greatest additional impact on higher quality lots owned by better capitalized households.
DA - 2014/8//
PY - 2014/8//
DO - 10.1080/1747423x.2014.940614
VL - 10
IS - 4
SP - 442-465
J2 - Journal of Land Use Science
LA - en
OP -
SN - 1747-423X 1747-4248
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1747423x.2014.940614
DB - Crossref
KW - secondary forest
KW - tropical deforestation
KW - Amazon
KW - remote sensing data
KW - survey data
KW - Benford's law
KW - reliability index
ER -
TY - RPRT
TI - Greening Household Behaviour: Overview of Results from Econometric Analysis and Policy Implications
AU - Serret, Y.
AU - Brown, Z.S.
T2 - OECD Environment Working Papers
A3 - OECD Publishing
AB - The second round of the OECD Survey on Environmental Policy for Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC) was implemented in 2011. A publication providing an overview of the survey data from over 12 000 households in eleven countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) is available.1 Follow-up econometric analyses were conducted in each of the thematic areas covered (energy, food, transport, waste and water), as well as on cross-domain comparisons in environmental attitudes and behaviours.2 This report presents a synthesis of main results from econometric analysis using the data from the 2011 EPIC survey, as well as policy implications.
C6 - 797979
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.1787/5jxrcllt1kq5-en
M1 - 79
PB - OECD Publishing
SN - 79
UR - https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/envaaa/79-en.html#more
ER -
TY - RPRT
TI - Greening Household Behaviour: Cross-Domain comparisons in environmental attitudes and behaviours using spatial effects
AU - Brown, Z.S.
T2 - OECD Environment Working Papers
A3 - OECD Publishing
AB - Discussions of the importance of public attitudes in shaping policy often lack clear evidence on causal relations between stated attitudes and observed behaviours. The 2011 OECD Survey of over 12,000 households allows analysing households’ environmental attitudes and behaviours in five different domains (electricity, food, transport, waste and water). Using econometric analysis, we investigate the relationship between stated environmental attitudes and indicators of civic engagement, such as voting in local elections, charity membership and membership in environmental organisations...
C6 - 686868
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.1787/5jxrclsj8z7b-en
M1 - 68
PB - OECD Publishing
SN - 68
UR - https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/envaaa/68-en.html
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - The Response of Corn Acreage to Ethanol Plant Siting
AU - Fatal, Yehushua Shay
AU - Thurman, Walter N.
T2 - Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics
AB - U.S. ethanol production capacity increased more than threefold between 2002 and 2008. We study the effect of this growth on corn acreage. Connecting annual changes in county-level corn acreage to changes in ethanol plant capacities, we find a positive effect on planted corn. The building of a typical plant is estimated to increase corn in the county by over 500 acres and to increase acreage in surrounding counties up to almost 300 miles away. All ethanol plants are estimated to increase corn production by less than their annual requirements.
DA - 2014/5//
PY - 2014/5//
DO - 10.1017/s1074070800000717
VL - 46
IS - 02
SP - 157-171
ER -
TY - SOUND
TI - Welfare Impacts of Pollinator Health Challenges
AU - Thurman, Walter N.
DA - 2014/7//
PY - 2014/7//
ER -
TY - CONF
TI - Global timber investments and trends, 2005-2011
AU - Cubbage, Frederick
AU - Abt, Robert
C2 - 2014///
C3 - Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Planted Forests
DA - 2014///
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Have We Managed to Integrate Conservation and Development? ICDP Impacts in the Brazilian Amazon
AU - Bauch, Simone C.
AU - Sills, Erin O.
AU - Pattanayak, Subhrendu K.
T2 - WORLD DEVELOPMENT
AB - Integrating conservation and development is central to the mission of many protected areas in the tropics, yet there is limited empirical evidence on the effectiveness of alternative strategies for ICDPs (Integrated Conservation and Development Projects). We evaluate an enterprise-based conservation strategy in a high-profile and well-funded ICDP in the Tapajós National Forest of Brazil. Using survey data from participating and non-participating households collected pre and post intervention, we find positive impacts on household income, but almost no discernible impacts on household assets, livelihood portfolios, or forest conservation.
DA - 2014/12//
PY - 2014/12//
DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.03.009
VL - 64
SP - S135-S148
SN - 0305-750X
KW - Impact evaluation
KW - Integrated conservation and development projects
KW - Amazon
KW - Brazil
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Forest Carbon Accounting Considerations in US Bioenergy Policy
AU - Miner, Reid A.
AU - Abt, Robert C.
AU - Bowyer, Jim L.
AU - Buford, Marilyn A.
AU - Malmsheimer, Robert W.
AU - O'Laughlin, Jay
AU - Oneil, Elaine E.
AU - Sedjo, Roger A.
AU - Skog, Kenneth E.
T2 - JOURNAL OF FORESTRY
AB - Four research-based insights are essential to understanding forest bioenergy and “carbon debts.” (1) As long as wood-producing land remains in forest, long-lived wood products and forest bioenergy reduce fossil fuel use and long-term carbon emission impacts. (2) Increased demand for wood can trigger investments that increase forest area and forest productivity and reduce carbon impacts associated with increased harvesting. (3) The carbon debt concept emphasizes short-term concerns about biogenic CO2 emissions, although it is long-term cumulative CO2 emissions that are correlated with projected peak global temperature, and these cumulative emissions are reduced by substituting forest bioenergy for fossil fuels. (4) Considering forest growth, investment responses, and the radiative forcing of biogenic CO2 over a 100-year time horizon (as used for other greenhouse gases), the increased use of forest-derived materials most likely to be used for bioenergy in the United States results in low net greenhouse gas emissions, especially compared with those for fossil fuels.
DA - 2014/11//
PY - 2014/11//
DO - 10.5849/jof.14-009
VL - 112
IS - 6
SP - 591-606
SN - 1938-3746
KW - biogenic emissions
KW - biomass energy
KW - carbon debt
KW - carbon dioxide
KW - forestry investment
KW - forest landowner
KW - greenhouse gas
KW - wood markets
KW - wood products
KW - wood fuel
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Efficient Use of Information in Adaptive Management with an Application to Managing Recreation near Golden Eagle Nesting Sites
AU - Fackler, Paul L.
AU - Pacifici, Krishna
AU - Martin, Julien
AU - McIntyre, Carol
T2 - PLOS ONE
AB - It is generally the case that a significant degree of uncertainty exists concerning the behavior of ecological systems. Adaptive management has been developed to address such structural uncertainty, while recognizing that decisions must be made without full knowledge of how a system behaves. This paradigm attempts to use new information that develops during the course of management to learn how the system works. To date, however, adaptive management has used a very limited information set to characterize the learning that is possible. This paper uses an extension of the Partial Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework to expand the information set used to update belief in competing models. This feature can potentially increase the speed of learning through adaptive management, and lead to better management in the future. We apply this framework to a case study wherein interest lies in managing recreational restrictions around golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) nesting sites. The ultimate management objective is to maintain an abundant eagle population in Denali National Park while minimizing the regulatory burden on park visitors. In order to capture this objective, we developed a utility function that trades off expected breeding success with hiker access. Our work is relevant to the management of human activities in protected areas, but more generally demonstrates some of the benefits of POMDP in the context of adaptive management.
DA - 2014/8/6/
PY - 2014/8/6/
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0102434
VL - 9
IS - 8
SP -
SN - 1932-6203
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Assessing Independent Variables Used in Econometric Modeling Forest Land Use or Land Cover Change: A Meta-Analysis
AU - Jeuck, James A.
AU - Cubbage, Frederick W.
AU - Abt, Robert C.
AU - Bardon, Robert E.
AU - McCarter, James B.
AU - Coulston, John W.
AU - Renkow, Mitch A.
T2 - FORESTS
AB - We conducted a meta-analysis on 64 econometric models from 47 studies predicting forestland conversion to agriculture (F2A), forestland to development (F2D), forestland to non-forested (F2NF) and undeveloped (including forestland) to developed (U2D) land. Over 250 independent econometric variables were identified from 21 F2A models, 21 F2D models, 12 F2NF models, and 10 U2D models. These variables were organized into a hierarchy of 119 independent variable groups, 15 categories, and 4 econometric drivers suitable for conducting simple vote count statistics. Vote counts were summarized at the independent variable group level and formed into ratios estimating the predictive success of each variable group. Two ratios estimates were developed based on (1) proportion of times the independent variables had statistical significance and (2) proportion of times independent variables met the original study authors’ expectations. In F2D models, we confirmed the success of popular independent variables such as population, income, and urban proximity estimates but found timber rents and site productivity variables less successful. In F2A models, we confirmed success of popular explanatory variables such as forest and agricultural rents and costs, governmental programs, and site quality, but we found population, income, and urban proximity estimates less successful. In U2D models, successful independent variables found were urban rents and costs, zoning issues concerning forestland loss, site quality, urban proximity, population, and income. In F2NF models, we found poor success using timber rents but high success using agricultural rents, site quality, population, and income. Success ratios and discussion of new or less popular, but promising, variables was also included. This meta-analysis provided insight into the general success of econometric independent variables for future forest-use or -cover change research.
DA - 2014/7//
PY - 2014/7//
DO - 10.3390/f5071532
VL - 5
IS - 7
SP - 1532-1564
SN - 1999-4907
KW - forestland use change
KW - meta-analysis
KW - econometric modeling
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - The cost of gypsy moth sex in the city
AU - Bigsby, Kevin M.
AU - Ambrose, Mark J.
AU - Tobin, Patrick C.
AU - Sills, Erin O.
T2 - URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING
AB - Since its introduction in the 1860s, gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), has periodically defoliated large swaths of forest in the eastern United States. Prior research has suggested that the greatest costs and losses from these outbreaks accrue in residential areas, but these impacts have not been well quantified. We addressed this lacuna with a case study of Baltimore City. Using two urban tree inventories, we estimated potential costs and losses from a range of gypsy moth outbreak scenarios under different environmental and management conditions. We combined outbreak scenarios with urban forest data to model defoliation and mortality and based the costs and losses on the distribution of tree species in different size classes and land uses throughout Baltimore City. In each outbreak, we estimated the costs of public and private suppression, tree removal and replacement, and human medical treatment, as well as the losses associated with reduced pollution uptake, increased carbon emissions and foregone sequestration. Of the approximately 2.3 M trees in Baltimore City, a majority of the basal area was primary or secondary host for gypsy moth. Under the low outbreak scenario, with federal and state suppression efforts, total costs and losses were $5.540 M, much less than the $63.666 M estimated for the high outbreak scenario, in which the local public and private sectors were responsible for substantially greater tree removal and replacement costs. The framework that we created can be used to estimate the impacts of other non-native pests in urban environments.
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.1016/j.ufug.2014.05.003
VL - 13
IS - 3
SP - 459-468
SN - 1610-8167
KW - Biological invasions
KW - Economic assessment
KW - Lymantria dispar
KW - Non-native forest pests
KW - Residential impacts
KW - Urban forestry
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Reducing fatigue damage for ships in transit through structured decision making
AU - Nichols, J. M.
AU - Fackler, P. L.
AU - Pacifici, K.
AU - Murphy, K. D.
AU - Nichols, J. D.
T2 - MARINE STRUCTURES
AB - Research in structural monitoring has focused primarily on drawing inference about the health of a structure from the structure’s response to ambient or applied excitation. Knowledge of the current state can then be used to predict structural integrity at a future time and, in principle, allows one to take action to improve safety, minimize ownership costs, and/or increase the operating envelope. While much time and effort has been devoted toward data collection and system identification, research to-date has largely avoided the question of how to choose an optimal maintenance plan. This work describes a structured decision making (SDM) process for taking available information (loading data, model output, etc.) and producing a plan of action for maintaining the structure. SDM allows the practitioner to specify his/her objectives and then solves for the decision that is optimal in the sense that it maximizes those objectives. To demonstrate, we consider the problem of a Naval vessel transiting a fixed distance in varying sea-state conditions. The physics of this problem are such that minimizing transit time increases the probability of fatigue failure in the structural supports. It is shown how SDM produces the optimal trip plan in the sense that it minimizes both transit time and probability of failure in the manner of our choosing (i.e., through a user-defined cost function). The example illustrates the benefit of SDM over heuristic approaches to maintaining the vessel.
DA - 2014/10//
PY - 2014/10//
DO - 10.1016/j.marstruc.2014.04.002
VL - 38
SP - 18-43
SN - 1873-4170
KW - Structured Decision Making
KW - Fatigue damage
KW - Structural reliability
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Monitoring as a partially observable decision problem
AU - Fackler, Paul L.
AU - Haight, Robert G.
T2 - RESOURCE AND ENERGY ECONOMICS
AB - Monitoring is an important and costly activity in resource management problems such as containing invasive species, protecting endangered species, preventing soil erosion, and regulating contracts for environmental services. Recent studies have viewed optimal monitoring as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), which provides a framework for sequential decision making under stochastic resource dynamics and uncertainty about the resource state. We present an overview of the POMDP framework and its applications to resource monitoring. We discuss the concept of the information content provided by monitoring systems and illustrate how information content affects optimal monitoring strategies. Finally, we demonstrate how the timing of monitoring in relation to resource treatment and transition can have substantial effects on optimal monitoring strategies.
DA - 2014/8//
PY - 2014/8//
DO - 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.12.005
VL - 37
SP - 226-241
SN - 1873-0221
KW - Environmental monitoring
KW - Dynamic programming
KW - Partial observability
KW - Value of information
KW - POMDP
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - The Reliability of Retrospective Data on Asset Ownership as a Measure of Past Household Wealth
AU - Mullan, Katrina
AU - Sills, Erin
AU - Bauch, Simone
T2 - FIELD METHODS
AB - Asset ownership is frequently used to assess the welfare status of households in rural areas of developing countries. Researchers often want to know the prior status of households or how that status has changed over time. In a case study in the Brazilian Amazon, we compare recall data with contemporary reports on assets from a panel survey. We consider multiple dimensions of the consistency of retrospective and contemporary data and seek to identify characteristics that lead to more accurate recall. We find that although retrospective data provide some information on past assets owned by households, they do not provide a highly accurate measure of either individual asset ownership or counts of types of assets owned. Consistent with previous studies, we find that items with greater salience are recalled more accurately. We also find that wealthier households exhibit upward bias when recalling assets owned in a previous period.
DA - 2014/8//
PY - 2014/8//
DO - 10.1177/1525822x13510370
VL - 26
IS - 3
SP - 223-238
SN - 1552-3969
KW - household survey
KW - recall data
KW - Brazil
KW - asset ownership
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Better the devil you throw: Experience and support for pay-as-you-throw waste charges
AU - Brown, Zachary S.
AU - Johnstone, Nick
T2 - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY
AB - Environmental taxes have long been proposed as an efficient means of improving the fiscal solvency of governments, while at the same time correcting for environmental externalities. However, public support for environmental taxes is often low, making the implementation of these instruments politically challenging in some settings. Scholars have explored the reasons for this broad, negative attitude towards environmental taxes, especially since these taxes are by design supposed to be welfare-improving. But previous empirical analysis on this topic is sparse and limited in context. Here, we empirically analyze support for environmental taxes across four countries, using a household survey on environmental attitudes, behaviour and policy exposure conducted by OECD during 2011. The environmental tax we focus on is pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) charges for mixed waste collection. Looking at expressed levels of support for PAYT charges, we find that people who are exposed to such systems tend to be significantly more supportive of them. This indicates that ex ante public resistance to such schemes is likely to dissipate following their introduction, a pattern which is supported by other, anecdotal reports and by lab experiments with generic Pigouvian taxes which we summarize in the literature review.
DA - 2014/4//
PY - 2014/4//
DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2013.11.007
VL - 38
SP - 132-142
SN - 1873-6416
KW - Behavioural environmental economics
KW - Pay-as-you-throw
KW - Pigouvian taxes
KW - Political economy
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Targeting areas for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) projects in Tanzania
AU - Lin, Liwei
AU - Sills, Erin
AU - Cheshire, Heather
T2 - GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS
AB - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has gained momentum as a climate mitigation strategy that can be implemented at multiple scales. Sub-nationally, REDD+ projects that aim to capture carbon funding are implemented throughout tropical countries. A spatial targeting approach for optimal REDD+ project landscape is demonstrated using Tanzania as an example. This study used GIS-based Multi-criteria Decision Analysis to identify potential areas for REDD+ projects development incorporating different combinations of criteria. The first approach, efficient targeting, focuses on areas with high forest carbon content, high deforestation risk and low opportunity cost. The second approach, co-benefits targeting, aims at areas with high biodiversity and high poverty rate on top of criteria in efficient targeting. The resulting suitability maps displays areas of high, medium and low suitability for future REDD+ projects development based on the targeting approaches. Locations of current REDD+ projects in Tanzania were also overlaid with suitability map to visually inspect how they match up. This approach allows decision-makers to prioritize preferences for various site-selection criteria and make informed decisions about REDD+ projects locations.
DA - 2014/1//
PY - 2014/1//
DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.003
VL - 24
SP - 277-286
SN - 1872-9495
KW - REDD plus project
KW - Spatial targeting
KW - Multi-criteria Decision Analysis
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Economics, environmental impacts, and supply chain analysis of cellulosic biomass for biofuels in the Southern US: pine, eucalyptus, unmanaged hardwoods, forest residues, switchgrass, and sweet sorghum
AU - Daystar, J.
AU - Gonzalez, R.
AU - Reeb, C.
AU - Venditti, R.
AU - Treasure, T.
AU - Abt, R.
AU - Kelley, S.
T2 - BioResources
AB - The production of six regionally important cellulosic biomass feedstocks, including pine, eucalyptus, unmanaged hardwoods, forest residues, switchgrass, and sweet sorghum, was analyzed using consistent life cycle methodologies and system boundaries to identify feedstocks with the lowest cost and environmental impacts. Supply chain analysis was performed for each feedstock, calculating costs and supply requirements for the production of 453,592 dry tonnes of biomass per year. Cradle-to-gate environmental impacts from these modeled supply systems were quantified for nine mid-point indicators using SimaPro 7.2 LCA software. Conversion of grassland to managed forest for bioenergy resulted in large reductions in GHG emissions due to carbon uptake associated with direct land use change. By contrast, converting forests to cropland resulted in large increases in GHG emissions. Production of forest-based feedstocks for biofuels resulted in lower delivered cost, lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and lower overall environmental impacts than the agricultural feedstocks studied. Forest residues had the lowest environmental impact and delivered cost per dry tonne. Using forest-based biomass feedstocks instead of agricultural feedstocks would result in lower cradle-to-gate environmental impacts and delivered biomass costs for biofuel production in the southern U.S.
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.15376/biores.9.1.393-444
VL - 9
IS - 1
SP - 393-444
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Combining expert elicitation and stated preference methods to value ecosystem services from improved lake water quality
AU - Van Houtven, George
AU - Mansfield, Carol
AU - Phaneuf, Daniel J.
AU - Haefen, Roger
AU - Milstead, Bryan
AU - Kenney, Melissa A.
AU - Reckhow, Kenneth H.
T2 - ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS
AB - With increasing attention on the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being, there is a need for tools that integrate ecological and economic models for valuing ecosystem services. To address this, we develop a protocol for linking ecological processes and outcomes to human preferences, which combines environmental modeling, expert elicitation, and nonmarket valuation methods. Our application values reductions in nutrient loads to lakes in the southeastern US. The innovation centers on how biochemical measures of water quality (e.g., chlorophyll a) are translated into terms that are meaningful to individuals who derive ecosystem services from them. Using expert elicitation data, we estimate a model linking changes in biochemical measures to an index of eutrophication in lakes. We then develop a stated preference survey including (a) detailed descriptions of the perceptible outcomes – e.g., water color, clarity – associated each eutrophication index level; and (b) policy scenarios involving state-level changes in lake eutrophication conditions. We estimate a function that predicts households' willingness to pay for changes in lake water quality. We demonstrate the protocol through a case study examining the benefits of lake quality improvement in Virginia as a result of recent policies to reduce nutrient loads in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
DA - 2014/3//
PY - 2014/3//
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.12.018
VL - 99
SP - 40-52
SN - 1873-6106
KW - Ecosystem services valuation
KW - Water quality
KW - Expert elicitation
KW - Stated preference
KW - Water quality modeling
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Linking Forest Tenure Reform, Environmental Compliance, and Incentives: Lessons from REDD plus Initiatives in the Brazilian Amazon
AU - Duchelle, Amy E.
AU - Cromberg, Marina
AU - Gebara, Maria Fernanda
AU - Guerra, Raissa
AU - Melo, Tadeu
AU - Larson, Anne
AU - Cronkleton, Peter
AU - Boerner, Jan
AU - Sills, Erin
AU - Wunder, Sven
AU - Bauch, Simone
AU - May, Peter
AU - Selaya, Galia
AU - Sunderlin, William D.
T2 - WORLD DEVELOPMENT
AB - Pervasive tenure insecurity in developing countries is a key challenge for REDD+. Brazil, a leader in REDD+, has advanced efforts to link forest tenure reform and environmental compliance. We describe how these policies have shaped sub-national interventions with detailed data on land tenure and livelihoods in four REDD+ pilot sites in the Brazilian Amazon. Despite different local contexts, REDD+ proponents have converged on a similar strategy of collaborating with government agencies to clarify tenure and pave the way for a mix of regulatory enforcement and incentive-based REDD+ mechanisms. This polycentric governance model holds promise for effective and equitable REDD+ implementation.
DA - 2014/3//
PY - 2014/3//
DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.01.014
VL - 55
SP - 53-67
SN - 0305-750X
KW - Latin America
KW - Brazil
KW - climate change
KW - deforestation
KW - forest degradation
KW - property rights
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - effect of conservation priority areas on bidding behavior in the conservation reserve program
AU - Jacobs, K. L.
AU - Thurman, W. N.
AU - Marra, M. C.
T2 - Land Economics
AB - We explore how a landowner’s bid to enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is influenced by his parcel’s designation as a Conservation Priority Area (CPA). A theoretical model of a landowner’s optimal bid is presented, and we demonstrate the ambiguity in a landowner’s optimal bid response to CPA designations. The bid choice is analyzed using a data set of accepted and unaccepted offers during three CRP sign-up periods. We focus empirically on a subset of offers from the Prairie Pothole CPA to identify whether bid responses to exogenous location factors differ across landowners with varying opportunity costs to enrollment. (JEL Q15, Q18)
DA - 2014///
PY - 2014///
DO - 10.3368/le.90.1.1
VL - 90
IS - 1
SP - 1-25
ER -
TY - JOUR
TI - Addressing structural and observational uncertainty in resource management
AU - Fackler, Paul
AU - Pacifici, Krishna
T2 - JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
AB - Most natural resource management and conservation problems are plagued with high levels of uncertainties, which make good decision making difficult. Although some kinds of uncertainties are easily incorporated into decision making, two types of uncertainty present more formidable difficulties. The first, structural uncertainty, represents our imperfect knowledge about how a managed system behaves. The second, observational uncertainty, arises because the state of the system must be inferred from imperfect monitoring systems. The former type of uncertainty has been addressed in ecology using Adaptive Management (AM) and the latter using the Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDP) framework. Here we present a unifying framework that extends standard POMDPs and encompasses both standard POMDPs and AM. The approach allows any system variable to be observed or not observed and uses any relevant observed variable to update beliefs about unknown variables and parameters. This extends standard AM, which only uses realizations of the state variable to update beliefs and extends standard POMDP by allowing more general stochastic dependence among the observable variables and the state variables. This framework enables both structural and observational uncertainty to be simultaneously modeled. We illustrate the features of the extended POMDP framework with an example.
DA - 2014/1/15/
PY - 2014/1/15/
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.11.004
VL - 133
SP - 27-36
SN - 1095-8630
KW - Adaptive management
KW - Natural resources
KW - Partial observability
KW - Partially observable Markov decision process
KW - Structural uncertainty
ER -