Existing models of agricultural decisionmaking based on economic optimization often fall short of capturing the complex dynamics of land-use choices at both individual parcel and watershed-level scales. The complexity arises from an interplay of several factors, as explained by Herbert Simon’s...

Farm-level and watershed-wide land-use changes resulting from policy initiatives are linked to a regional input/output model. As a result not only can the direct economic impacts at the farm and watershed levels be determined, so too can the direct and induced economic impacts at the regional level.

A digitally represented watershed landscape (ARC/INFO GIS) is merged with farm optimization (linear programming) and sediment and chemical transport (AGNPS) models. Enhanced targeting of non-point source pollution to remedial policy and management initiatives result. The implications of which...

A genetic algorithm (GA), an evolutionary optimization technique, is coupled with a semi-distributed hydrologic model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to find an optimum combination of structural Best Management Practices (BMPs) that meets the treatment goals at a watershed scale. The...

Recent studies in water resources planning and management show a gradual shift in the state of the art from numerous on-site structural stormwater Best Management Practice (BMP) designs to watershed-scale BMP design approaches that meet both target water quantity (peak flow) and quality...

Alluvial channels undergo continuous morphological changes caused by relationships between entrained sediment, variable flows and movable boundaries. Excess changes that occur through sediment degradation and deposition, however, tend to threaten the stability of bridges, hydraulic control...

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have become common data driven tools for modeling complex, nonlinear problems in science and engineering. Many previous applications have relied on gradient-based search techniques, such as the back propagation (BP) algorithm, for ANN training. Such techniques,...

The design and operation of civil engineering systems, particularly water resources systems, has been pursued from the perspective of minimizing costs and related negative impacts, maximizing benefits, or a combination thereof. Due to the complex, nonlinear nature of the majority of systems,...