Social and Environmental Economic Research (SEER) into Multi-Objective Land Use Decision Making

This deliberately ambitious research project examines arguably the most fundamental of all resource problems: the optimal use of land. It seeks to assess this using a novel methodology intended to undertake simultaneous economic assessment of both (a) the primary effects of policy, market or environmental change upon land use and (b) the second round, dynamic consequences of that change which may in turn generate multiple feedback effects upon various other environments. When land use policy changes (e.g. reform of the CAP), or when the market for related products or costs changes (e.g. the price of cereals, fuel, etc.), or even when the environment itself changes (e.g. climate change) the resultant series of immediate and longer terms responses can be complex and far reaching.

Conventional analyses tend to focus upon single dimension, static and/or short term consequences. This project addresses such limitations through a new and innovative series of linked assessments of a variety of related dimensions and land use change impacts. These analyses include:
(i)    modelling the diverse determinants of land use itself (as mentioned, including policy, market and environmental factors);
(ii)    assessing the income and welfare economic impacts upon rural livelihoods (particularly farming) of such change;
(iii)    consequences in terms of the net climate change contribution of land use (via greenhouse gas equivalent assessments of farm operations, production activities such as livestock intensity, and soil carbon flux);
(iv)    impacts upon the water environment via diffuse pollution of nutrients and faecal organisms;
(v)    ecosystem services and biodiversity as measured by indicators such as bird species population characteristics, insect pollination services, etc;
(vi)    outdoor recreation services (and allied objectives regarding redistribution of related participation rates).