ABSTRACT:
A geographic information system (GIS) and enterprise budgets are used to identify hydric cropland sites in north-central Missouri that are suitable for conversion to wetlands and to evaluate the private and social economic feasibility of conversion. The GIS identifies hydric cropland sites meeting specific soils, size, and shape criteria. The soils criteria favor sites amenable to the development, maintenance, and productivity of a wetland. Sites smaller than 5 ha are eliminated because they are too smallfor wetland development. A shape factor is used to eliminate sites likely to have multiple owners, which complicates wetland development. Net social and net private economic benefits of converting hydric cropland to wetland are estimated for a range of benefits and costs. Two of the four cases examined indicated that conversion is socially feasible and one of the two cases analyzed indicated that conversion is privately feasible.
Footnotes
Tony Prato is professor of agricultural economics and director of the Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems (CARES), Yun Wang is a former research assistant in CARES, Tim Haithcoat is program director, Geographic Resources Center, and Chris Barnett and Chris Fulcher are research associates in CARES, University of Missouri-Columbia, 65211. The activities on which this report are based were financed in part by the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, through the Missouri Water Resources Research Center, and by the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Missouri-Columbia.
- Copyright 1995 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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