Juggling Land Retirement Objectives on an Agricultural Landscape: Coordination, Conflict, or Compromise?

Strategic land retirement in agricultural settings has been used as one way to achieve a combination of social objectives, which include ameliorating water quality problems and enhancing existing systems of wildlife habitat. This study uses a simulation model operating on a virtual landscape, along with the compromise programming method, to illustrate the implications of alternative weighting schemes for the long-term performance of the landscape toward various objectives. The analysis suggests that particular spatial patterns may be related to how various objectives are weighted. The analysis also illustrates the inevitable trade-offs among objectives, although it may be tempting to present retirement strategies as “win-win.”