Optimal Regulation of Eutrophying Lakes, Fjords, and Rivers in the Presence of Threshold Effects

Eutrophication is a biological process that has an unfavorable economic impact on the economic value of the water basins it affects. Eutrophication depends on thresholds effects, and optimal policies for the regulation of eutrophication must take this into account. Such optimal policies are derived in the present article by utilizing a novel technique in optimal control theory. This technique facilitates a proper analysis of deterministic stock pollutants with thresholds effects, a topic it is argued has been poorly understood in the literature. Copyright 2001, Oxford University Press.