Abstract:
Resource allocation for land acquisition is a common multiobjective problem that involves complex trade-offs. The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently uses the Targeted Resource Acquisition Comparison Tool (TRACT) to allocate funds from the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund (MBCF; established through the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Act of 1934) for land acquisition based on cost-benefit analysis, regional priority rankings of candidate land parcels available for acquisition, and the overall biological contribution to duck population objectives. However, current policy encourages decision makers to consider societal and economic benefits of lands acquired, in addition to their biological benefits to waterfowl. These decisions about portfolio elements (i.e., individual land parcels) require an analysis of the difficult trade-offs among multiple objectives. In the last decade the application of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods has been instrumental in aiding decision makers with complex multiobjective decisions. In this study, we present an alternative approach to developing land-acquisition portfolios using MCDA and modern portfolio theory (MPT). We describe the development of a portfolio decision analysis tool using constrained optimization for land-acquisition decisions by the NWRS. We outline the decision framework, describe development of the prototype tool in Microsoft Excel, and test the results of the tool using land parcels submitted as candidates for MBCF funding in 2019. Our results indicate that the constrained optimization outperformed the traditional TRACT method and ad hoc portfolios developed using current NWRS criteria.
摘要:
征地资源分配是一个常见的多目标问题,涉及复杂的权衡。美国鱼类和野生动物服务局的国家野生动物保护区系统(NWRS)目前使用目标资源获取比较工具(TRACT),根据成本效益分析,从候鸟保护基金(MBCF;通过1934年《候鸟狩猎和保护法》建立)中分配资金用于土地获取,可供收购的候选地块的区域优先等级,以及对鸭子种群目标的总体生物学贡献。然而,现行政策鼓励决策者考虑获得土地的社会和经济利益,除了它们对水禽的生物学益处。这些关于投资组合要素的决策(即,个别地块)需要分析多个目标之间的艰难权衡。在过去的十年中,多准则决策分析(MCDA)方法的应用有助于帮助决策者进行复杂的多目标决策。在这项研究中,我们提出了一种使用MCDA和现代投资组合理论(MPT)开发土地收购投资组合的替代方法。我们描述了NWRS使用约束优化进行土地收购决策的投资组合决策分析工具的开发。我们概述了决策框架,描述MicrosoftExcel中原型工具的开发,并使用2019年作为MBCF资助候选人提交的地块测试该工具的结果。我们的结果表明,约束优化优于传统的TRACT方法和使用当前NWRS标准开发的临时投资组合。