Case Studies on the Application of Adaptive Risk Analysis to USDA’s Resource Conservation Programs

Abstract

As part of its role of ensuring that major regulations proposed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) are based on sound scientific and economic analysis, the Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis (ORACBA) is undertaking a series of case studies to apply a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) risk analysis technique to USDA’s Resource Conservation Programs. The MCDM tool being developed and tested is aimed at providing a clear understanding of the environmental and human health benefits and associated level of uncertainty of various management practices that are implemented under the Resource Conservation Programs. The case studies examine two different programs: 1) the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and 2) the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The EQIP case study will focus on specific watersheds and determine the impact of a range of manure management practices on multiple environmental and human health objectives and will provide the basis for a comparison of benefits, including those related to the reduction or prevention of risk to the costs associated with a set of potential alternative management strategies. The CRP case study will evaluate the effects of various kinds of managed disturbances to grasslands enrolled in the CRP with the objectives of reducing nutrient runoff and enhancing wildlife values. Both projects were in their initial stages at the time this paper was prepared and therefore only the progress to-date and the underlying theory being applied to the case studies are discussed.KeywordsRisk AssessmentEcological Risk AssessmentConservation Reserve ProgramMultiple Criterion Decision MakingNatural Resource Conservation ServiceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.