The main focus was on developing an algorithm and supporting computer programs for use by extension personel to counsel farm managers on problems of enterprise choice. Investigation was initiated from the complete certainty viewpoint of linear programming. Upon introducing uncertainty, ramifications of changing expected income, variance and the correlation coefficient...
Agricultural economists have devoted considerable attention to
the financial stress situation of agricultural producers. Many
studies have been conducted in various regions of the U.S. in an
attempt to better understand the causes of the problem. The costs
associated with farm financial stress imply corresponding benefits to
be realized by...
The distribution of agricultural production for
continuous consumption requires the capacity to maintain
inventories which are large relative to the rate of
utilization. As a result, the demand for inventories is a
critical element in the pricing of agricultural
commodities. A component of inventory demand, referred to
here as reservation...
The problem of determining an optimal sequence of decisions in
even-aged stand management is analyzed and solved with an alternative to
the traditional dynamic programming network. The new method is derived
independently from two different approaches to the problem: Network
optimization and generalized LaGrange multipliers. Both derivations are
presented. It...
A complex and sometimes serious problem facing modern day forest
managers is that of estimating and analyzing potential on-site impacts
which result from forest activities. A major type of adverse impact
is man-Initiated forest erosion. This consequence can be substantially
magnified when forest harvest and road activities are implemented in...
The study presents two main parts: first, a review
of tropical silviculture and forest management systems
and, second, the investigation of a growth and yield
model which has some potential for application in the
tropical region. The presentation of tropical
silviculture includes: (1) an overview of the biological
characteristics of...
Abstract Watershed-scale fate/transport modeling of contaminants is a tool that scientists and land managers can use to assess pesticide contamination to stream systems. The Catchment Modeling Framework (CMF) is a catchment-scale fate/transport modeling tool. It was developed to help scientists and land managers assess the effects of possible land-use decisions...
The Production Switching Heuristic (PSH) developed by
Mellichamp and Love (1978) has been suggested as a more
realistic, practical and intuitively appealing approach to
aggregate production planning (APP). In this research, PSH
has been modified to present a more sophisticated open grid
search procedure for solving the APP problem. The...
This research addresses fleet-sizing for reusable containers that are used for
protection, transportation, and storage of parts between a component plant and
assembly plant. These reusable containers are often expensive and occupy a
large amount of storage space when empty and full. Having a large container
fleet comes with higher...
There is considerable uncertainty associated with stand
establishment in coastal Oregon. Several species can gain
control of the site depending on stand conditions as well as
management practices. In this study, three cover type
transition models were developed using data from the Siuslaw
National Forest to predict stand establishment patterns...
Occurrence of human error in highly complex systems, such as a cockpit, can be disastrous and/or overwhelmingly costly. Mismanagement of multiple concurrent tasks has been observed by researchers to be a type of repetitive human error in previous studies of accidents and incidents. This error may occur in the form...
These three papers address uncertainty in the management and valuation of renewable natural resources. The first paper develops a model to integrate both stock and price uncertainty to obtain optimal resource levels. The model is an extension of Reed (1974) and shows by proof and by example that when prices...
This thesis is a collection of four submitted manuscripts that present
methods to assist forest ecosystem service managers wanting to develop
operational sampling, monitoring, and production plans for a set of
specific quantifiable ecosystem services, which are formulated as a
series of general multi-objective optimization problems. The problems
are solved...
The onsite costs and benefits of conservation tillage in the
Camas Prairie Region of Northern Idaho were estimated. The evaluation
of these costs and benefits included a measurement of the
long-term effects of soil erosion on cropland productivity.
A model developed by Daniel Taylor (1982) was used as a base...
A model of agricultural decision making is developed and tested in this thesis. The expected value of utility evaluated under alternative outcomes is directly maximized in a nonlinear programming model. Two features of the model distinguished it from traditional risk programming models. First, alternative attitudes towards the assumption of risk...
An analytical algorithm to formulate a sparser set of adjacency constraints than the conventional algorithm is proposed. Utilizing matrix algebra applied to an adjacency matrix, constraints are systematically and efficiently derived by the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is proved to provide a true set of adjacency constraints in the...
This dissertation consists of three papers studying optimization, conservation
and valuation of contingent claims in economic resource nianagement under
uncertainty.
In the first paper the Markovian optinial policies are studied for resource
management in a finite time horizon. Under sonic conditions, in particular, when
the prices are stochastic and there...
Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus) is commercially
and ecologically one of the most important fishery resources
in the Pacific coast of the United States. The fishery
is currently going through a period of rapid and profound
transformation that could cause a substantial redistribution
of benefits among domestic users. Benefits from the...
This paper presents a framework for analyzing efficient spatial allocation of forest
management efforts - fuel treatment and harvest - under the risk of fire. The framework
integrates a fire behavior model and a spatially-explicit stochastic dynamic optimization
model. I investigate the effects of spatial interaction across plots during forest...
To protect and restore environmental quality, efficient and effective conservation policies are needed. Designing policies require a sound understanding of the contributions of natural endowments to economic vitality, and the performance and impacts of conservation programs. This dissertation consists of three essays, and addresses several issues relevant to these two...
The goal of this study is to test the accuracy of
various mutual fund timing and selectivity models under a
range of portfolio managerial skills and varying market
conditions. Portfolio returns in a variety of skill
environments are generated using a simulation procedure. The
generated portfolio returns are based on...
The optimal allocation of buffers in serial production systems is one of the oldest and most researched problems in Industrial Engineering. In general, there are three main approaches to the buffer allocation problem when the objective is to maximize throughput. The first is basically a systematic trial and error procedure...
........................................................................................... 44
3.1. Production Line Model and the Buffer Allocation Problem ..................... 44
3.1.1. The
Often furrow irrigation application efficiencies are low compared to sprinkler systems. The primary goal of furrow irrigation is to infiltrate a relatively uniform target depth of water necessary for the crop, while minimizing the amount of runoff. The concept is difficult because water can infiltrate differently at all locations in...
Volume I: TREES (Timber Resource Economic Estimation System), a forest management and harvest scheduling model, is comprehensively described in the first of a four-volume series. Even- or uneven-aged forest inventories form basic resource units (BRUs), entered by age class or size and diameter classes; stocking level; and management intensity. Management...
Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Fleet Services manages a fleet that in 2008 included approximately 5,000 pieces of active equipment worth $340–$390 million. Every biennium, a fixed budget is available to replace a certain amount of this equipment. This research evaluated various measures for establishing equipment replacement priorities.
A model...
This study has two main objectives. First, we propose an alternative way for treating deposits in modeling a banking firm, which account for both their input and output features. Second, we contribute to modeling failures in the banking sector by distinguishing three groups of factors affecting failures: bank level, industry...
To increase the knowledge needed to successfully implement the ecosystem-based approach to fishery management, this dissertation investigates important issues within the economics of choice and the economics of displacement. In particular, a discrete choice model of the fishing location decision in the Newport, Oregon bottom trawl groundfish fishery is estimated...
Forest growth models in the Pacific Northwest are predominantly empirical. Predictions of yield under alternative silvicultural regimes cannot rely completely on field trials; yet empirical growth models are often inadequate for extrapolating untested regimes and genotypes. The limitations of current models include (1) long time-steps (e.g. 5-10 years); (2) insufficient...
Crop development models are commonly used in research.
However, their use as crop management tools for growers is
rare. Decision support systems (DSS), which combine crop
models with expert systems, are being developed to provide
management assistance to growers. Researchers at Oregon
State University are in the process of developing...
Harvest scheduling and stand level optimization have
generally been regarded as separable problems. Some
studies have attempted to jointly optimize a wide range of stand treatments and a forest wide harvest schedule using combinations of mathematical programming techniques. The mathematical programming forest level techniques presume perfect information on production, costs...
In this dissertation, we study two risk models. First, we consider the dual risk process which models the surplus of a company that incurs expenses at a constant rate and earns random positive gains at random times. When the surplus is invested in a risky asset following a geometric Brownian...
The Elliott State Forest, located in the Coast Range of Oregon, is currently revising their Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). Many of the constraints in the HCP are spatial, requiring identification of specific parcels in order to limit activity along habitat reserves, limit harvest opening size, and to coordinate activities within...
The purpose of this study was to develop a mass-balance model for total suspended solids in the Tualatin River in order to better understand the clarity-turbidity problem in the river. Major sources and sinks of suspended solids in the river were identified, and seasonal effects were explored. The study also...
The Tualatin River Basin is located in the Washington County, Oregon. The river was detected having high chlorophyll a concentration and low dissolved oxygen concentration during summer time, which violated DEQ water quality standards. A mathematical model (HSPF) was used to simulate physical, chemical and biological processes in the basin...