PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kent D. Messer
AU  - Maik Kecinski
AU  - Xing Tang
AU  - Robert H. Hirsch IV
TI  - Multiple-Knapsack Optimization in Land Conservation: Results from the First Cost-effective Conservation Program in the United States
AID  - 10.3368/le.92.1.117
DP  - 2016 Feb 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 117--130
VI  - 92
IP  - 1
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/92/1/117.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/92/1/117.full
SO  - Land Econ2016 Feb 01; 92
AB  - Conservation groups often piece together their parcel selections by combining funds from multiple sources. When applying multiple-knapsack optimization, substantial increases in conservation benefits, acreage, and number of parcels preserved can be achieved. Specifically, we show that multiple-knapsack optimization substantially outperforms benefit targeting, cost-effectiveness analysis, and sequential binary integer programming. This study uses data from the first known cost-effective land conservation program in the United States—in Baltimore County, Maryland—and shows that multiple-knapsack optimization can deliver additional benefits. (JEL D61, Q24)