PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - E.A Machado
AU  - D. M. Stoms
AU  - F. W. Davis
AU  - J. Kreitler
TI  - Prioritizing farmland preservation cost-effectively for multiple objectives
DP  - 2006 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
PG  - 250--258
VI  - 61
IP  - 5
4099  - http://www.jswconline.org/content/61/5/250.short
4100  - http://www.jswconline.org/content/61/5/250.full
AB  - American society derives many benefits from farmland and is often willing to pay to preserve it from urbanization. We present an innovative framework to support farmland preservation programs in prioritizing conservation investments. The framework considers the full range of social benefits of farmland and improves the application of decision analysis methods to the process. Key factors for ranking farms are: 1) social objectives and priorities, 2) how much farmland value is expected to be lost to development if not preserved, 3) how much farmland value is already secured in the agricultural region, and 4) how much it will cost to secure the farm's benefits. The framework can be applied strategically over an entire region or to rank a set of applications from landowners. We demonstrate our framework using three criteria in the Bay Area/Delta bioregion of California.