Irrigation Water Valuation Using Spatial Hedonic Models in GIS Environment

Hedonic pricing is an indirect valuation method that applies to heterogeneous goods investigating the relationship between the prices of tradable goods and their attributes. It can be used to measure the value of irrigation water through the estimation of the model that describes the relation between the market value of the land parcels and its characteristics. Because many of the land parcels included in a hedonic pricing model are spatial in nature, the conventional regression analysis fails to incorporate all the available information. Spatial regression models can achieve more efficient estimates because they are designed to deal with the spatial dependence of the data. In this paper, the authors present the results of an application of the hedonic pricing method on irrigation water valuation obtained using a software tool that is developed for the ArcGIS environment. This tool incorporates, in the GIS application, the estimation of two different spatial regression models, the spatial lag model and the spatial error model. It also has the option for different specifications of the spatial weights matrix, giving the researcher the opportunity to examine how it affects the overall performance of the model.

Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System DECERNS

Land-use planning and environmental management often requires an implementation of both geo- spatial information analysis and value-driven criteria within the decision-making process. DECERNS (Decision Evaluation in Complex Risk Network Systems) is a web-based distributed decision support system for multi-criteria analysis of a wide range of spatially-explicit land management alternatives. It integrates mainly basic and some advanced GIS functions and implements several Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods and tools. DECERNS can also be integrated with a model server containing generic and site specific models for in-depth analysis of project and environmental risks as well as other decision criteria under consideration. This paper provides an overview of the modeling approaches as well as methods and tools used in DECERNS. Application of the DECERNS WebSDSS (Web-based Spatial Decision Support System) for a housing site selection case study is presented.

A Modeling Approach to Simulate Effects of Intercropping and Interspecific Competition in Arable Crops

Interspecific competition between species influences their individual growth and performance. Neighborhood effects become especially important in intercropping systems, and modeling approaches could be a useful tool to simulate plant growth under different environmental conditions to help identify appropriate combinations of different crops while managing competition. This study gives an overview of different competition models and their underlying modeling approaches. To model intercropping in terms of neighbouring effects in the context of field boundary cultivation, a new model approach was developed and integrated into the DSSAT model. The results indicate the possibility of simulating general competition and beneficial effects due to different incoming solar radiation and soil temperature in a winter wheat/maize intercropping system. Considering more than the competition factors is important, that is, sunlight, due to changed solar radiation alone not explaining yield differences in all cases. For example, intercropped maize could compensate low radiation due to its high radiation use efficiency. Wheat benefited from the increased solar radiation, but even more from the increased soil temperature.

DeLone & McLean IS Success Model in Evaluating Knowledge Transfer in a Virtual Learning Environment

DeLone & McLean’s success model has been actively used since its first introduction in 1992. In this article, the authors extend this model to describe the success of knowledge sharing in an information system that included a part of the knowledge base of a private educational institute. As the supply of private education is increased, it is vital to be aware if the offered educational services support the use of the knowledge base and if the service is perceived satisfactory by the customers. In this descriptive qualitative case study, the authors discuss how the DeLone & McLean’s information system success model can be used to assess educational services when apprenticeships form a salient part of teaching. This paper focuses on issues that interested the target organization.

Multidimensional Assessment of Emerging Technologies

The Internet has changed the world in many ways. Online communications, financial and business-to-business transactions, electronic shopping, banking, and entertainment have become the norm in the digital age. The combined package of technologies that comprise the Internet—the information superhighway—have made all of this possible. The aging technological infrastructure that supports these webs of interconnected networks is being stressed to its performance limits. Recent advances in the backbone infrastructure that supports the Internet have helped alleviate some of these problems, but more challenges lie ahead for solving technology-related performance bottlenecks for many online applications, including high-definition interactive gaming. In this paper, the authors developed a technology assessment through multiple perspectives. While different components of the technology such as applications, protocols and network components are identified, other impact areas such as market and management are also evaluated. Elements of user behavior are evaluated within the market perspective. Evaluating technologies through these dimensions concurrently provides a balanced assessment among technical, economical, social and political factors.

The Keys to the White House

The Keys to the White House are an index-based prediction system that retrospectively account for the popular-vote winners of every US presidential election from 1860 to 1980 and prospectively forecast the winners of every presidential election from 1984 through 2008. The Keys demonstrate that American presidential elections do not turn on events of the campaign, but rather on the performance of the party controlling the White House. The Keys hold important lessons for politics in the United States and worldwide. A preliminary forecast based on the Keys indicates that President Obama is a likely winner in 2012, but also reveals the specific problems at home at abroad that could thwart his re-election.

A Mergers and Acquisitions Index in Data Envelopment Analysis

In this paper, a dynamic network DEA model is developed to evaluate the potential gains in final output from a merger of two firms. The two firms are allowed to have different production technologies or share a common technology. In a beginning period each firm uses period specific inputs to produce a final output and an intermediate output that becomes an input in the production of final outputs in a subsequent period. Firms that merge can use the intermediate input of one firm to produce final output for the other firm, leading to gains in final output for the two merged firms over what the firms could have produced individually. The method is applied to study Japanese cooperative Shinkin banks during 2003 to 2007. Mergers between banks in Nagasaki, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki prefectures tend to have the highest potential gains, while mergers between banks within Fukuoka prefecture and other prefectures and within Saga prefecture tend to have the smallest potential gains.

National Game Management Database of Hungary

Advances in ecological science and increasing public environmental awareness have resulted in changes in the management of renewable natural resources. To achieve sustainable use of wildlife, managers need reliable data on populations, habitats, and the complexities of ecological interactions. The National Game Management Database (NGMD) was first mandated by the Hungarian Game Management and Hunting Law in 1996. In this paper, the authors summarize the origins, characteristics, development, and results leading to the final establishment of and uses for the NGMD. Goals of the NGMD are to store data on game populations and game management, provide input to spatial analyses and mapping, and to facilitate decision-making and planning efforts of game management administration. It contains information on the populations of game species, data from annual game management reports, trophy-scoring data, maximum allowed and minimum huntable population size, and maps and long-term game management plans for each GMU and the 24 game management regions. In Hungary, the NGMD was the first operating database in wildlife management and nature conservation providing full GIS capabilities, supporting geographical analyses.

Reports from the Field

Since the work of Tansley (1935) and others, many have embraced the concept that an ecosystem is a synergy of its parts. Numerous science-centric approaches have been developed to address ecosystem management, while also taking into account the needs of the public. Participatory environmental modeling using system dynamics is an effective process for facilitating the integration of ecosystem science and social concerns. This integration helps break barriers between disciplines while also identifying important feedbacks between traditionally segregated types of data. Using the art of facilitation and the science of model building, the methodology creates a common language that integrates various types of information into simulation models. This paper describes a diversity of case studies, that have used system dynamics to create platforms through which stakeholders can simultaneously explore their system, stressors to that system, potential tipping points, resilience, and prospective policies that address the environment, social concerns, and long-term sustainability.

Changing Attitudes toward Women IT Managers

Essentialism and social constructionism theories have long explained the difficulties women experience as they aspire to higher managerial positions or enter science and technology fields. In the 1970s, the Women as Managers Scale (WAMS) sought to determine the extent to which males perceived females as being different from their social group. Given efforts to encourage women to consider IT careers and changes in public law and education that have occurred since the early 1970s, this study revisited the WAMS to compare current attitudes of young people toward women as managers. The results suggest that through the intangible individual differences of women, perspective, overtime, via training, by awareness, and with their greater participation in the workplace, there has been gradual improvement in the perception of women as managers by men in the science and technology fields.