How important is conservation planning to society today? It impacts the quality of our most precious natural resources: water, air, soil, wildlife, and plant material as well as every aspect of one of the largest industries in the United States: agriculture. In order to gain a better understanding of the conservation planning process, as well as the elements involved in creating an effective conservation plan, a Web-based survey was administered to one of the leaders in the advancement of conservation planning and planning technology, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The purpose of this study is to identify the trends and needs within the Mississippi NRCS, as well as to identify the characteristics of a potential end user of a conservation planning tool. The purpose of the survey was to identify the agents’ comfort levels with the conservation planning process, conservation practice design and implementation, numerous incentive programs, water quality testing, and most importantly digital technology.

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京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第23241号 / 農博第2448号 / 新制||農||1084(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R3||N5331(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科生物資源経済学専攻 / (主査)准教授 三谷 羊平, 教授 伊藤 順一, 教授 梅津 千恵子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

This dissertation investigates two broad management accounting questions in the context of electric utility industry: How do regulators for electricity industry use the information generated from accounting systems to make pricing decisions? What are the economic consequences of these decisions? In Chapter 2, I review regulatory reforms and discuss existing issues of using DEA models for efficiency benchmarking in four aspects. Suggestions are given for improving the use of DEA models based on the review and discussion. In Chapter 3, I empirically investigate the effect of incentive regulation with DEA benchmarking on operational efficiency using a panel of electricity distribution firms in Brazil. In Chapter 4, I examine the effect of restructuring and retail competition on cost reduction using a sample of US investor-owned electric utilities. The effects of privatization, industrial restructuring, incentive regulation and benchmarking are effectively disentangled from one another using the research setting in Brazil and US electricity industry. In Chapter 5, I combine the idea of activity based costing and data envelopment analysis to further develop a detailed benchmarking model for incentive regulation. / Business Administration/Accounting

This dissertation introduces a new theory of practice for land planning in America based on behavioralism. It is called culture based incentive planning, or CBIP. The CBIP model and techniques are based on four pillars: cultural snesitivity, behavior analysis, engineered incentive regimes, and the tools of persuasion. CBIP is designed to provide an adaptable framework from which to approch regulatory reform in planning. The framework is applicable to the full range of planning implementation strategies from commond and control to market-based approaches. CBIP, as a systems model, has been engineered to create a cooperative rather than adversarial relationship between government and the regulated community by recognizing issues of cultural sensitivity, market response, and behavioral motivations. Under the model, effective implementation of planning objectives is directly tied to the role that incentives play in human behavior. Based on the foundation of incentive theory, CBIP integrates a variety of principles and techniques from applied behavior analysis and behavioral economics to align incentives that drive personal behavior with public planning objectives. CBIP utiliizes a variety of incentives in planning practice including economic, process, lifestyle, social, behavioral, and technical assistance inducements. / Ph. D.

The demand for electricity of a particular location can vary significantly based on season, ambient temperature, time of the day etc. High demand can result in very high wholesale price of electricity. The reason for this is very short operating duration of peaking power plants which require large capital investments to establish. Those power plants remain idle for most of the time of a year except for some peak demand periods during hot summer days. This process is inherently inefficient but it is necessary to meet the uninterrupted power supply criterion. With the advantage of new technologies, demand response can be a preferable alternative, where peak reduction can be obtained during the short durations of peak demand by controlling loads. Some controllable loads are with thermal inertia and some loads are deferrable for a short duration without making any significant impact on users' lifestyle and comfort. Demand response can help to attain supply - demand balance without completely depending on expensive peaking power plants. In this research work, an incentive-based model is considered to determine the potential of peak demand reduction due to the participation of residential customers in a demand response program. Electric water heating and air-conditioning are two largest residential loads. In this work, hot water preheating and air-conditioning pre-cooling techniques are investigated with the help of developed mathematical models to find out demand response potentials of those loads. The developed water heater model is validated by comparing results of two test-case simulations with the expected outcomes. Additional energy loss possibility associated with water preheating is also investigated using the developed energy loss model. The preheating temperature set-point is mathematically determined to obtain maximum demand reduction by keeping thermal loss to a minimal level. Case studies are performed for 15 summer days to investigate the demand response potential of water preheating. Similarly, demand response potential associated with pre-cooling operation of air-conditioning is also investigated with the help of the developed mathematical model. The required temperature set-point modification is determined mathematically and validated with the help of known outdoor temperature profiles. Case studies are performed for 15 summer days to demonstrate effectiveness of this procedure. On the other hand, total load and demand response potential of a single house is usually too small to participate in an incentive-based demand response program. Thus, the scope of combining several houses together under a single platform is also investigated in this work. Monte Carlo procedure-based simulations are performed to get an insight about the best and the worst case demand response outcomes of a cluster of houses. In case of electrical water heater control, aggregate demand response potential of 25 houses is determined. Similarly, in case of air-conditioning control (pre-cooling), approximate values of maximum, minimum and mean demand reduction amounts are determined for a cluster of 25 houses. Expected increase in indoor temperature of a house is calculated. Afterwards, the air-conditioning demand scheduling algorithm is developed to keep aggregate air-conditioning power demand to a minimal level during a demand response event. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. / Master of Science

This quasi-experimental field study examined the efficacy of a safety self-management intervention to increase safety-related work practices in mining operations. A total of 15 male miners participated in the study while engaging in their normal work practices at the Virginia Tech Quarry, located in Blacksburg, Virginia. The study had two groups, Feedforward (n=8)--participants self-recorded their intentions to engage in specific percentages of safety-related work behaviors before starting their shift for the day, and Feedback (n=7)--participants self-recorded their percentages of safety-related work behaviors after their shift for the day. After a seven-week Baseline, miners participated in a safety training presentation. Immediately following this training, participants from each group were instructed to complete one self-monitoring form each day on their self-intentions (Feedforward) or actual (Feedback) safety performance for four weeks. Participants were paid $1.00 for each completed self-monitoring form. All completed forms were entered into a raffle for a cash prize of $50.00 at the end of the Intervention phase. During Withdrawal (four weeks) miners did not complete any self-monitoring forms. Trained research assistants made a total of 10, 905 obtrusive behavioral observations on three target behaviors (ear plugs, dust mask, and safety glasses) and five non-target behaviors (gloves, hard hat, boots, knee position during lifts, body position during lifts) across phases. Results showed the safety self-management intervention significantly increased safety performance across both target and non-target behaviors during the Intervention phase. / Master of Science