Department of Economics
University of Delaware
Working Paper #2008-18
Applying Optimization and the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Enhance Agricultural Preservation Strategies in the State of Delaware
Kent D.
Messer
Dept. of Food and Resource Economics
University of Delaware
and
William
Allen, III
Director of Strategic Conservation
The Conservation Fund
ABSTRACT
Using agricultural preservation priorities derived from an analytical hierarchy process by 23 experts from 18 agencies in the State of Delaware, this research uses weighted suitability attributes to evaluate the historical success of the State of Delaware’s agricultural protection fund, which spent nearly $100 million in its first decade. This research demonstrates how these operation research techniques can be used on concert to address relevant conservation questions. Results suggest that the state’s sealed-bid-offer auction, which determines the yearly conservation selections, is superior to benefit targeting approaches frequently employed by conservation organizations but is inferior to the optimization technique of binary linear programming that could have provided additional benefits to the state, such as 12,000 additional acres worth an estimated $25 million.
Keywords: Conservation Optimization, Farmland Protection, Analytic Hierarchy Process.
JEL Codes: C6, Q2