Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1986. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 383-416). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-71).

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-68). Also available via the Internet.

This thesis explores topics in Agricultural Economics and is composed of five papers. In the first paper (Chapter 2), a latent-class stochastic frontier model is used to estimate efficiency scores of farmers in Ethiopia. Compared to conventional models, which assume a unique frontier, much lower inefficiencies are found, suggesting that part of the inefficiencies uncovered in the literature could be an artefact of the methods used. The second paper (Chapter 3) revisits the link between cereal diversity and productivity using a panel dataset in Ethiopia. The results suggest that the positive effect between cereal diversity and productivity becomes much smaller when households who produce teff (a low-productivity and high-value crop) are excluded from the sample, hinting at the possibility that results could be driven by yield differentials between cereals, rather than diversity. The third paper (Chapter 4) estimates the labour impacts of the adoption of Soil and Water Conservation technologies (SWC) in Ethiopia. The results suggest that adopting SWC technologies leads to an increase in adult and child labour. Understanding the labour impacts is important in itself, but it also raises concerns about using impact evaluation methods that require no change in inputs as an identifying assumption of impacts. Paper 4 (Chapter 5), assesses the pertinence of a drought index that has recently been proposed in the literature by Yu and Babcock (2010) and argues that it defines drought too narrowly. An extension to this index is proposed and we show, using a dataset of Indian districts, that the original index is likely to underestimate the impacts of drought. In Paper 5 (Chapter 6), we identify data-driven ranges of rainfall for which the marginal effects of a rainfall-temperature index (RTI) are different and then we discuss how the impacts of drought have changed over the 1966-2009 period in India. Finally, Chapter 7 concludes.

For the past three decades, biologists and geographers have increasingly incorporated geographical information systems to inventory and analyze spatially organized data. The proliferation of computational tools and models for visualizing, processing, and quantifying landscape patterns has continued sometimes without thorough scrutiny and scientific understanding of their benefits and limitations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the structure and accuracy of the ecological modeling program Land Change Modeler for ArcGIS (LCM) and its analytical methods. A case study rich in land use change at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge was used to focus on the program's ability to utilize imagery at multiple levels of spatial resolution and to quantify landscape change. The case study evaluated the LCM module on three primary criteria 1) inputs and outputs, 2) the impacts of scale and resolution in terms of proposed analytical methods, and 3) program structure, simplicity, flexibility, and function definitions. The study revealed that the module based structure of LCM demands specific inputs which allow for the assessment of landscape change, habitat, and biodiversity. But, the program is difficult to navigate and requires prior knowledge of analytical methods. The study also showed that the appropriate utilization of ecological computational programs should be based upon fundamental concepts of landscape ecology, the intended use of the outputs, and the prior knowledge of the user.

Abstract not available.

As a result of the cumulative interaction of several forces the demand pressures on outdoor recreation space and facilities in North America are increasing rapidly. The forces at work are those of population growth and urbanization, rising levels of per-capita income, leisure and mobility, the use of space-consuming recreational equipment, and the rise of the tourist-recreation industry. The supply, in terms of outdoor space and amenities, with the range of requisite site facilities, is limited, and the necessity of careful planning for recreational land use becomes increasingly apparent. There are conflicts between public and private interests, between various adjacent or simultaneous uses of land for recreation, between the agencies which provide the facilities through which recreation land is used, and between recreation and non-recreation land uses. On the assumption that the forces making for these conflicting pressures will continue, the hypothesis is proposed, that regional planning should provide an optimum balance between public, private-commercial, private-collective and private-individual types of recreation site development. This basically normative approach makes necessary a descriptive survey and evaluation of the four types of agency and their respective effects on the physical, economic, legal-administrative and social background of the region in which they occur. It also requires a consideration of the public interest as a norm within which the goals of outdoor-recreation planning may be established, and an analysis of the optimizing processes which are or might be the methological basis of planning. Two basic approaches to the problem of defining the public interest are exposed: one seeking to define it substantively as a particular state of affairs; the other seeking procedural or operational conditions which will generate it. In the latter case the processes of decision-making are of prior importance in leading toward the public interest, a concept which is itself left undefined in terms of concrete value content. It appears that the conflict-resolving process must be a process of balancing or harmonizing a wide range of values, including those of initiative in decision-making as well as those of concrete results. This balancing of values is called optimizing, since no single value must be maximized at the expense of others when each has a valid claim. The survey and analysis indicate that each of the four agencies for outdoor recreation site development In North America has a valid role to play in providing recreation and other benefits, given planning direction. The public interest in regional land-use planning, therefore, lies in optimizing recreation benefits, which in turn requires an optimum balance between public, private-commercial, private-collective and private individual types of site development. The hypothesis, insofar as it implies that planning can optimize recreation land-use on the regional scale, is not valid, since, although the region seems, prima facie, to be the appropriate unit in scale, there are many publics, and many interests in outdoor recreation which transcend regional limits. A true optimum, therefore, even within a region, is more likely to be achieved by national and even international planning of recreation resources. This limited investigation could be extended by further theoretical analysis and by field research, particularly in the form of attitude and other surveys of the impact of new recreation development on local communities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Improved techniques for forecasting land needs for urban development are required with continuing population and economic growth for the provision of adequate services at reasonable cost. Current local forecasting techniques exclude the direct measurement of land used in industrial activities and its correlation with industrial production. With continuing technological improvements in industrial processes it is likely that the relation between land and output will vary and particularly in the manufacturing industries. A review of the Petroleum Refining Industry's experience by a direct mailed questionnaire to all Lower Mainland of B.C. refiners indicated a declining importance of land in relation to output over the last two decades. Trends in refinery output, employment, and land in active use, show an increasing productivity of both land and labor. The increase in productivity of manufacturing land exceeded that of labor over the past twenty years in this industry group. A conceptual comparison was made between two types of forecast where, in one, the factor of increasing output per unit of land was excluded. The comparison was inexact since somewhat different industries were compared. However, it appeared that over a twenty-year period the exclusion of the productivity of land factor in the example could lead to significantly different results. The difference between the techniques was an indicated requirement of 1200 acres versus 600 acres in total land needed up to 1980 by the industry group. Before the factor of land productivity in manufacturing and other industries can be adequately considered changes are required in the methods of collecting statistics. These changes would enable a correlation between output, employment, population, and land within the urban area. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

A land use management study was conducted in an area of north eastern Chitawan in central Nepal. Changes in soil properties, forest and agricultural productivity, farm management and profitability were compared among ten land use categories. The research revealed that the most intensively managed agricultural land, under annual triple crop rotations had excellent productivity with little evidence of soil deterioration (pH, organic carbon, exchangeable bases). Several soil properties (pH, base saturation, available phosphorus, compaction) under such farming systems were found to be better than those under degraded forest. The degradation of the forests, as measured by wood biomass, regeneration and soil quality was found to be widespread. A 15 to 30 percent decline in timber, fuelwood and fodder was observed between the natural and degraded forest. This removal of forest products was accompanied by changes in soil properties such as exchangeable bases, pH, compaction and exchangeable and free aluminum. Alternative land uses were evaluated using a decision making method which considered crop preferences, productivity, gross margins, resource requirements, soil quality indicators and risk factors. Data from farm interviews and from the soil study were incorporated into this micro-computer based method. The data evaluation showed that soil conserving and productive land use options were not always feasible for the small farmer because they were more risky and required more resources of irrigated land, labour and operating capital. Interesting relationships were found between soil properties, productivity, land uses and fertility inputs. The flexibility of the methodology makes this technique an attractive tool for land use decision making at the farm and village level. The mapping units used for the national Land Resource Mapping Project (LRMP) formed the basis for this study and the approach developed can therefore be applied to other areas in Nepal. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

The complexity and turbulence of the twentieth century is reflected in the increasing size and number of government agencies, leading to overlapping responsibilities, competition, and conflict in the field of planning. Multiple jurisdictions with conflicting goals have stimulated the need for productive rather than symbolic interorganizational structures. Local land-use planning is one field where uncoordinated land-use decisions are particularly harmful to the public interest. In Canada, this planning is thought to be controlled by the local government's planning staff under the direction of elected officials. However, this belief ignores the reality of the jurisdictional independence of provincial and federal government agencies. Within a local planning area, these independent agencies are free to use their land to meet their own perceived responsibilities, regardless of local land-use policies. The varied responsibilities and objectives of land-use decision-making organizations have led to interorganizational conflict, incompatible adjacent land uses, ineffective regional plans, and missed opportunities for efficient cooperative planning. It is hypothesized that an interorganizational structure (ios) specifically designed according to theoretically-derived criteria would provide an effective mechanism for reduction of planning conflicts and promotion of cooperative local land-use planning, and would be superior to the existing reliance on ad hoc arrangements. The thesis first examines the contextual relationship between the local planner and one representative independent agency, the Department of National Defence. This is followed by case studies which illustrate both land-use conflicts and cooperative actions currently arising between two DND bases and their neighbouring communities in British Columbia. The thesis next explores the nature of interorganizational relations in terms of group dynamics, social psychology of negotiations, and interorganizational power struggles. This relationships theory is fundamental to understanding the dynamics of an ios. This theoretical understanding of interorganizational relations,, plus the practical, considerations revealed by the case studies, provide the framework for development of ios criteria. The criteria are compared against existing models of interorganizational planning and decision-making to test their validity. These criteria are used to design an ios model for local land-use planning in British Columbia. Finally, the ios model is applied to the case studies using realistic scenarios to determine its effect on interorganizational cooperation. It is shown that the ios would be much more effective at providing both opportunities and reduced risk for cooperation than does the existing situation. Organizations will make use of these opportunities whenever they will benefit from doing so. This will occur more frequently in the ios designed according to theoretically-derived criteria than otherwise. While the ios is designed for a specific situation, the criteria are soundly developed from both theory and the case studies and provide the basis for design of similar mechanisms for land-use planning anywhere in Canada. Furthermore, the understanding gained here contributes to our limited knowledge in the crucial field of interorganizational relations. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate