Cost‐Effective Targeting of Land Retirement to Improve Water Quality with Endogenous Sediment Deposition Coefficients

Abstract

An integrated framework that combines spatial and biophysical attributes of land with a hydrological model and an economic model is developed to identify cropland for enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Sediment deposition coefficients are determined endogenously depending on the land-use decisions on other land parcels. Application of this framework to a watershed in Illinois demonstrates that highly sloping land adjacent to water bodies should be selected for retirement. A marginal value rental payment scheme can achieve program goals of 20% sediment abatement at 39% lower cost than a productivity-based rental scheme. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Cost-effective water quality improvement in linked terrestrial and marine ecosystems: a spatial environmental - economic modelling approach

“…The EESIP modelling approach presented in this paper contributes to previous approaches that integrate economic models with hydrological and/or soil models to explore opportunities for cost-effective water quality improvement (e.g. Khanna et al 2003;Yang and Weersink 2004;Yang et al 2005) because it integrates an agricultural production system simulation model as well as a catchment water quality model into a spatial environmental-economic land-use model -thus allowing for the simultaneous cost-effectiveness assessment of a wide variety of management practices for water quality improvement at the catchment scale. Hence, the EESIP modelling approach is used in the development of the Tully (Kroon 2008) and the Burdekin (ongoing) Water Quality Improvement Plans, in particular through the (spatially explicit) prioritisation of management practices that most cost-effectively contribute to water quality improvement.…”

“…Few studies have integrated economic models with hydrological and/or soil models to explore opportunities for cost-effective water quality improvement through, e.g. targeting of conservation tillage, land retirement and riparian buffers at the catchment scale (see Khanna et al 2003;Yang and Weersink 2004;Yang et al 2005).…”

Impact of crop rotations on optimal selection of conservation practices for water quality protection

“…Thus, our approach, which specifies a particular mix and distribution of conservation practices, can provide policymakers with tools for better targeting of conservation policy aimed at water quality improvements. In terms of implementation, armed with the algorithm's prescriptions, policymakers can offer targeted payments (method suggested by Khanna et al [2003]), or elicit bids and accept or reject them using modeling results as guidance. Of course, the specific set of practices targeted depends on particular water quality goals.…”

“…As pointed out by a reviewer of this paper, traditional optimization techniques could indeed be used, but the combinatorial nature of the problem often limits the size of the problem undertaken (as in Khanna et al [2003], where only a narrow band of land adjacent to stream was a part of the optimization). Also, since these methods cannot directly integrate the watershed model into optimization, some of the useful features of the process model might be lost.…”

Economic Incentives to Improve Water Quality in Agricultural Landscapes: Some New Variations on Old Ideas

“…Thus, the marginal damages that A's activity has depends on the action of a farmer in another location -farmer B. This situation has been referred to as nonconstant diffusion coefficients or endogenous coefficients (Khanna, Yang, and Farnsworth, 2003).…”