Establishing a benchmark for comparing relative cost-effectiveness of an alternative policy instrument for controlling non-point source pollution

Abstract

Knowledge about economic environmental tradeoffs is a prerequisite to evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative policy instruments to control non-point source pollution (NPS). Failure to explicitly account for the impact of the spatial combination of alternative management practices on pollution contribution rates while quantifying these tradeoffs may cause relative comparisons between alternative policy instruments to control NPS pollution inappropriate. The main objective of this research is to develop a spatial decision support system able to quantify cost-effective economic environmental tradeoffs of maintaining alternative pollution standards taking the interrelated linkages between various agricultural management practices into account. The system is used to establish a benchmark tradeoff curve by means of which alternative policy instruments to control NPS pollution can be compared to determine their relative cost-effectiveness.

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