Land Acquisition Costs Research Articles

Least-Cost and Most Efficient Channel Cross Sections

It has been a long-standing concern to decide if a channel should be designed to have the highest hydraulic efficiency or the least cost. In this study, a large amount of channel construction costs were reviewed and analyzed to derive the channel construction cost function as the sum of the costs for the land acquisition of the channel's alignment, lining material for the channel's cross section, and earth excavation for the channel's depth. Case studies conducted in this technical note indicate that the differences between the least-cost and most efficient cross sections are closely related to the channel lining to land acquisition cost ratio. When the lining to land unit cost ratio vanishes, the difference between these two cross sections is diminished. As revealed by the cost data, the least-cost channel section tends to be deeper if the land cost is much higher than the lining cost. This trade-off was incorporated into the normalized equation to provide direct solutions to the least-cost channel cross section. The normalization of the least-cost equations allows this approach to be transferred to other regions when the local cost data are available.

Optimal Preliminary Highway Alignment, with Slope Disaster Risk Management, in Himalayan Regions

This paper proposes a preliminary highway alignment optimization model incorporating slope disaster risk management. Previous research in highway alignment optimization has not considered detailed slope instability conditions. Various types of natural disaster–-including landslides, slope failure, floods, and earthquakes–-are common in the Himalayan regions because of rugged topography and fragile geology. Construction of highways in the area disturbs naturally formed slopes, resulting in instability on the slope. An inclusive slope failure susceptibility map was prepared by considering various types of landslide-controlling factors including lithology, slope, aspect, land use, drainage density, stream drop, distance to stream, and distance to lineament. In addition to slope failure susceptibility layer, land acquisition cost, slope, land use, and unit cost of earthwork excavation are considered when optimizing highway alignment. The process was done in a geographic information system environment in a case study investigating the influence of the slope failure susceptibility condition in alignment optimization. Preliminary alignments were searched in a cost-weighted distance raster created with and without considering slope failure susceptibility condition, whose influence is noticed distinctly with respect to location and length of alignment. Alignments obtained from preliminary optimization were compared with previously proposed alignments, and newly optimized alignments verify the previous studies. The main limitation of this study–-that it could not consider all cost functions–-will be considered in future work.

Women farmers\' participation in yam minisett adoption in south-eastern Nigeria.

This study was designed to measure the level of women farmers participation and its determinants in the adoption of yam minisett in Abia State South-eastern Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 243 women farmers while interview schedule was used in data collection. Data collected were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means and Pearson correlation. The result showed that out of 9 adoption activities identified for the study, the women farmers had high level of involvement in 7 activities. Lack of awareness, lack of capital, lack of extension services, scarcity/high cost of farm inputs, high cost of labour and land acquisition were indicated by the respondents as the major problems limiting their participation in adoption of the technology in the study area. Educational Status (r = 0.295, P

Cost and Pollutant Removal of Storm-Water Treatment Practices

Six storm-water best management practices BMPs for treating urban rainwater runoff were evaluated for cost and effective- ness in removing suspended sediments and total phosphorus. Construction and annual operating and maintenance O and M cost data were collected and analyzed for dry extended detention basins, wet basins, sand filters, constructed wetlands, bioretention filters, and infiltration trenches using literature that reported on existing storm-water BMP sites across the United States. After statistical analysis on historical values of inflation and bond yields, the annual O and M costs were converted to a present worth based on a 20-year life and added to the construction cost. The total present cost of each storm-water BMP with the 67% confidence interval was reported as a function of the water quality design volume, again with a 67% confidence interval. Finally, the mass of total suspended solids and total phosphorus removed over the 20-year life was estimated as a function of the water quality volume. For the six storm-water BMPs investigated, results show that, ignoring land costs, constructed wetlands have been the least expensive to construct and maintain if appropriate land is available. However, since wetlands typically require more land area to be effective, land acquisition costs may result in wetlands being significantly more expensive than other storm-water BMPs that require less area. The results can be used by planners and designers to estimate both the total cost of installing a storm-water BMP and the corresponding total suspended solids and total phosphorus removal.

Abiotic Factors Influencing Root Growth of Woody Nursery Plants in Containers

Container production has many advantages over traditional in-ground (field) production, including less damage occurring to the root system when transplanted, better establishment after transplanting, decreased labor and land acquisition costs for production, and increased product availability and longevity in the retail market. Growing plants in containers, however, alters root growth and function and can change root morphology. Numerous factors influence root growth in containers. Roots of container-grown plants are subjected to temperature and moisture extremes not normally found in field production. The effects of substrate aeration (Ea) as well as water holding capacity (Pv) interact with different pot characteristics, resulting in changes to root morphology. Successful plant establishment after transplanting is often linked to root health. This review focuses on the roles of substrate physical and chemical properties, container characteristics, and temperature in altering root growth in container-grown woody nursery crops. Root circling, planting too deeply or “too-deep syndrome” (TDS), and the use of composts as container substrates will also be examined.

An Evolutionary Algorithm for Site Search Problems

The goal of solving a site search problem is to allocate a contiguous set of land parcels such that the total land acquisition cost, or other objectives, are optimized. This article describes the design and implementation of an evolutionary algorithm (EA) that can be used to solve site search problems. In this article, a graph representation is used to define the spatial structure of solutions to the problem. By using this representation, the contiguity of a site is maintained during the initialization, mutation, and local search operations of the EA. The effectiveness of the EA in finding optimal or near‐optimal solutions is demonstrated by testing it on a series of problems whose optimal solutions are known.

Economics and Land‐Use Change in Prioritizing Private Land Conservation

Abstract: Incentive‐based strategies such as conservation easements and short‐term management agreements are popular tools for conserving biodiversity on private lands. Billions of dollars are spent by government and private conservation organizations to support land conservation. Although much of conservation biology focuses on reserve design, these methods are often ineffective at optimizing the protection of biological benefits for conservation programs. Our review of the recent literature on protected‐area planning identifies some of the reasons why. We analyzed the site‐selection process according to three important components: biological benefits, land costs, and likelihood of land‐use change. We compared our benefit‐loss‐cost targeting approach with more conventional strategies that omit or inadequately address either land costs or likelihood of land‐use change. Our proposed strategy aims to minimize the expected loss in biological benefit due to future land‐use conversion while considering the full or partial costs of land acquisition. The implicit positive correlation between the likelihood of land‐use conversion and cost of land protection means high‐vulnerability sites with suitable land quality are typically more expensive than low‐vulnerability sites with poor land quality. Therefore, land‐use change and land costs need to be addressed jointly to improve spatial targeting strategies for land conservation. This approach can be extended effectively to land trusts and other institutions implementing conservation programs.

Financial analysis of sustained forest management for timber: Perspectives for application of the CELOS management system in Brazilian Amazonia

Sustained management of the Terra Firme Forest in Amazonia is financially analysed for an integrated forest management and timber processing industry. Two scenarios are studied, one with reduced impact logging (RIL) and sparing of reserves without silvicultural follow-up in a 100-year harvesting cycle, and another one inclusive of silviculture after RIL, liberating reserves in a 25-year cycle. Cycle lengths are based on CELOS research in Suriname. Acquisition of land is assumed to be complete at the beginning, the 100-year cycle option needing four times as much land as the 25-year cycle option. A cash flow analysis over a 100-year period for both options with a 8% discount rate shows that the total costs in the land-intensive option (25 years) with silviculture are considerably less than in the land-extensive option; the lower cost of infrastructure, log transportation and land acquisition offset the cost of silviculture. Because the annual revenues from timber sale are the same in both options, the NPV of the intensive option is also much higher. A sensitivity analysis shows that the land-intensive option is expected to give still a positive NPV in less favourable situations. The relatively small forest area in the land-intensive option together with the organisational setting, which includes integration with the processing industry, favours a sustainable development. More intensive management gives signals to settlers that helps prevent their encroachment. In addition, the higher annual increment in this option facilitates a contribution to regional development and makes a larger area available for strict nature reserves.

Sensitivity Analysis of Stabilization Pond System Design Parameters

Two stabilization pond systems are examined. A sensitivity analysis is undertaken, aimed at investigating the influence of the pond depths on stabilization pond surface area and pond volume for the specific combination of temperature, wastewater characteristics and effluent requirements. The dependencies are presented in a functional form, allowing for the graphical solution of the unit pond volume, area, and hydraulic residence time as a function of the respective pond depths. Based on these graphs, designers can determine the most appropriate depth value for each type of pond that minimizes the required area or volume, or balances excavation versus land acquisition and floor lining costs, taking under consideration the topographic and other local characteristics of the site area.

The effect of limited options and policy interactions on water storage policy in South Florida

Due to environmental constraints and reactive water management practices, water shortages exist across the Everglades ecosystem. A growing human population and continued wetlands damage and loss decrease the system’s ability to provide water for sustained natural areas and for human uses. ‘The Restudy’ is an $8 billion plan to restore the Everglades while also continuing to provide water storage for urban and agricultural areas. The Restudy proposes a mix of water storage systems to provide for the predicted future growth in water demand. This mix is purported to be the most cost-efficient at providing water supplies, within the constraints of unchanged agricultural and urban land use. However, a sensitivity analysis of the Restudy’s cost equation reveals that the total cost of water storage systems is influenced by real estate, land acquisition and water treatment costs. The interaction of land use and agricultural policies can affect these cost factors, and can change the relative cost-efficiency between storage systems. Real estate and land acquisition costs are affected by several 1996 Farm Bill provisions, which influence the cost of aboveground water storage systems versus Aquifer Storage and Recovery systems. The Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South Florida recommendations also influence the water storage options available to the Restudy. Due to the Restudy’s initial assumptions and constraints, it may not advocate the most economically and ecologically sound remediation.

Restoring natural habitats: economic impacts of the Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, Missouri USA

Economic benefits and costs of the proposed 60,000-acre Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge are evaluated for three economic impact assessment scenarios, two cropland acreage amounts (maximum or minimum) and three acreage allocation options. Results show that the major cost of the Refuge is the economic losses associated with reduced crop production. Expected agricultural economic losses and land acquisition cost for the Refuge can be minimized by targeting land acquisitions to agricultural land that is already enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program and not protected by levees. If land is acquired in levee-protected areas, land acquisitions should be targeted to areas enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program or Emergency Wetland Reserve Program.

Property rights as policy tools for sustainable development

The emergence of land markets in developing countries sometimes concentrates property rights in individual ‘owners,’ restricting the rights held by other claimants under customary tenure systems. By neglecting livelihood and environmental externalities, this may undermine the objectives of sustainable development. This paper draws lessons from the United States' experience using property rights as policy tools to accommodate multiple interests in resource use and conservation without incurring the political costs of regulation or the full financial costs of land acquisition. The benefits of such tools must be weighed against potentially significant costs, including those of monitoring and enforcing complex property arrangements over time.

Mitigation, Its Current Situation and Problems in U.S.A.

The processes and cost of mitigation projects in U.S.A were investigated by interviewing with consultants and developers. Many problems still remain after the 25 years history of mitigation.Because of rapid development and high cost of land acquisition, on-site and in- kind type mitigations are difficult to be carried out in U.S.A. now. To avoid this difficulty, the mitigation banking has been established. The problem of the mitigation banking is obscurity of its quality and prices. Some of the price are controled by government or regulatory agency irrespective of the quality. This prevents the healthy development of the marketplace in the banking.

Representativeness and Efficiency of Bird and Insect Conservation in Norwegian Boreal Forest Reserves

I quantified local species richness of birds in different forest types and of beetles in spruce forests at different altitudes. In both cases I quantified timber production as a measure of land acquisition cost and used the ratio between the species richness and timber production as a measure of conservation cost‐efficiency. I found a positive correlation between timber production and local species richness of birds as well as beetles, indicating that the forests most valuable for forestry are also the ones most valuable for biodiversity conservation. I used different selection procedures for combining sites in a reserve network to find the minimum set of sites that included all vulnerable species. The minimum set of sites for birds was 30% spruce forest, 30% pine forest, and 40% broad‐leaved forest (the three main forest types). The minimum set of sites for the beetles was uniformly distributed along the altitudinal gradient. Both minimum sets were most cost‐efficient for species conservation. I suggest that equal coverage of different productivity classes is more efficient for optimizing biodiversity conservation than over‐representing low productivity sites. Less than 1% of Norwegian boreal forests have been protected as nature reserves. The reserve network is fairly representative with respect to altitude, but it is seriously skewed toward low productivity sites. The current network is suboptimal with respect to forest type representativeness, species protection, and cost‐efficiency. This is a result of an inefficient strategy of selecting reserve sites and an unfortunate combination of selection criteria.

Les politiques départementales des espaces naturels sensibles sur le littoral français : un principe commun pour des applications contrastées / The policies of French "Départements" for conservation of coastal sites : a single principle for diverse applications

French "Départements" are decentralized territorial communities that are judicially and financially empowered, since the 1960s, to implement nature conservancy policies. These communities have the right of pre-emption on land for sale in zones defined as subject to such pre-emption. The costs of land acquisition and management aie defrayed by funds from a tax (TDENS) that the departments may levy on buildings and houses. Departments thus have the possibility, if they so wish, of becoming major actors in nature conservation. Although many ’Départements" do not adopt any conservationist measures, virtually all those with a seaboard have implemented such measures. "Départements" are more or less closely associated with the "Conservatoire de l’espace littoral" in preserving and managing the coastal heritage. Decentralization confers on departments a lot of autonomy in decision-making. In consequence, although the policies for the conservation of sensitive coastal zones are based on common principles, they may vary considerably from one department to the other.

Optimal Translocation Strategies for Enhancing Stochastic Metapopulation Viability

Numerous methods have been proposed for enhancing species viability. Much attention has been given to the minimum required number of individuals, size and number of nature reserves, and value of habitat corridors. Surprisingly, however, the potential value of active management of a population through a program of translocations has only rarely been suggested, and explicit formulations of a theoretical basis for such a program are nonexistent. By drawing on the mathematical optimization technique known as dynamic programming, I develop an optimal dynamic strategy for translocation in a model population. I demonstrate this approach using a simple model for a hypothetical remnant population with two available habitat reserves incorporating demographic, environmental, and catastrophic forms of stochasticity. I then generalize the results by examining the effect on the cost and effectiveness of optimal translocation management of reserve size, population growth rate, environmental stochasticity, catastrophe size and frequency, translocation mortality rate, spatial correlation of population dynamics, and reserve size asymmetry. Simulated application of the optimal strategies, under a wide range of conditions, demonstrates that managed translocations averaging between 1 and 6 individuals/yr might dramatically enhance the probability of species persistence and reduce the required size of nature reserves, potentially by >1 order of magnitude. Given prohibitive financial and political costs of land acquisition for nature reserves, this technique could provide an important alternative for saving many endangered species.

GIS-based riparian buffer analysis: injecting geographic information into landscape planning

The establishment and maintenance of riparian buffer zones along shorelines or streams is a common best management practice (BMP) in the United States. These vegetated areas function as sinker, filter, and transformer to delay, absorb, or purify contaminated runoff before it enters surface waters. Their effectiveness for nonpoint source pollution control has been widely appreciated. Presented in this paper is a case study in which a GIS-based (geographic information system based) buffer analysis was conducted on a North Carolina watershed in support of landscape planners' planning activities. By implementing scientifically tested models on generally available data sets in a GIS framework, the study accomplished a series of tasks that would have been extremely difficult if done in conventional ways. These tasks include (1) calculating and mapping variable riparian buffer zones; (2) identifying inadequately regulated areas (i.e. areas outside the currently regulated buffer zones but within the calculated buffer zones); (3) estimating land acquisition costs associated with these inadequately regulated areas. The analytical results were well received by the decision makers and advanced their knowledge about landscape planning issues that they were facing.

Community Structure and Composition of Breeding and Wintering Birds in a Wastewater-Irrigated Oak Forest

We compared avian community structure and composition between 4 forested sites irrigated with wastewater (chlorinated sewage effluent) and 4 nonirrigated forested sites in central Pennsylvania during 1 breeding season and 2 winters. Compared to nonirrigated sites, irrigated sites had higher densities of all species combined and higher species richness (S) in the breeding season and in the winters. In the breeding season, 9 species were significantly (P < 0.05) more abundant on irrigated sites, whereas only 1 species was more abundant on nonirrigated sites. In winter, 4 species were more abundant on irrigated sites, but none was more abundant on nonirrigated sites. Because irrigation resulted in dense herbaceous growth, species that foraged or nested in vegetation near (<3 m) ground level were particularly abundant on irrigated sites. We conclude that community structure and composition of breeding and wintering avifauna were not negatively affected by wastewater irrigation, but breeding populations of species that forage or nest in leaf litter may be affected negatively by irrigation. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 54(3):493-500 Approximately 22 of 2,000 municipal sewage systems in the United States that apply treated wastewater directly on land do so in forests (W. E. Sopper, pers. commun.; Urie 1986). But this practice is expected to increase as small, localized facilities are needed in nonagricultural areas, on steeply sloping terrains, or where crop irrigation is not necessary (Nutter and Red 1986). Application of wastewater to land is attractive for several reasons (Sopper 1968); but irrigation of forest habitats, in particular, results in higher soil infiltration rates, less runoff and erosion, lower land acquisition costs, and fewer potential human health risks than irrigation of agricultural lands (U.S. Environ. Prot. Agency 1981, Burd 1986). Changes to forests irrigated with wastewater have been well-documented. Wastewater application alters the structure and species composition of forest understory plants, abundance of invertebrates, and occurrence of fruit-producing vegetation (Sopper and Kardos 1973, Lewis 1977, Mastrota et al. 1989). Thus, irrigation directly affects the resources (e.g., nesting sites, food, or cover) available to forest birds. Yet little is known about the effects of wastewater irrigation on community structure and omposition of forest birds (Rollfinke 1988). Three previous studies of breeding avian communities associated with wastewater irrigation (Savidge and Davis 1971, Snider 1974, Lewis and Samson 1981) were conducted on sma l forested plots within The Pennsylvania State University's (PSU) Wastewater Renovation System with irregular or partial-year irriga ion schedules (Rollfinke 1988). The PSU system was expanded from 40 to 200 ha and began using a year-round irrigation schedule in 1983. We compared community structure and composition of breeding and wintering birds on irrigated and nonirrigated forested sites after the expansion of this irrigation system. ' Present address: Friends School, 5114 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.120 on Wed, 14 Sep 2016 04:56:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 494 IRRIGATED FORESTS * Rollfinke and Yahner J. Wildl. Manage. 54(3):1990 We thank E. D. Bellis and J. A. Kurland for comments on the manuscript. Our research was supported by the Pennsylvania Agriculture Experiment Station and the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation.

Issues in financing urban rail transit projects and value captures

Urban rail transit projects are suffering from the cost burden in Japan because the current financing system is dependent on borrowed money by loans and bonds that are repaid mainly by fares. The fund cannot bear the increasing expenditure demand due to the accelerated construction demand and the rising cost of land acquisition. This paper reexamines the financing system and analyses the possible menus for fund-raising from the viewpoint of imbalance between benefit receivers and cost burdeners on the basis of benefit principle, referring to Japanese examples.

TALL TREES, PEOPLE, AND POLITICS: THE OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF THE REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK

Because individuals in the marketplace directly face opportunity costs, they must balance marginal costs against marginal benefits. In contrast, in politics, the opportunity costs facing decision makers are diluted. Estimates of the social costs of various public programs are generally understated, while the estimates of social benefits are exaggeratedThis paper places the establishment and expansion of the Redwood National Park within this framework and analyzes it as a public investment decision. It is shown that in the initial creation of the Redwood National Park in 1968, the costs of land acquisition and employment loss were underestimated, while the projections for gains in tourism were excessive. Despite the opposition of local landowners and residents, the Park was further expanded 10 years later in 1978. There was again a misstatement of costs and benefits and also the creation of an expensive new entitlement program to defuse the opposition of laborThe experience with the redwood National Park illustrates the results of the political process, which allows decision makers to internalize benefits and externalize costs. Emotion and rhetoric tend to displace a careful weighing of marginal costs and benefits