Issue At Hand

Too often, the impacts of land use choices are only evaluated in one dimension, be it ecological, social or economic. Maximizing landscapes to meet a single objective often results in poor performance in one or more of the remaining objectives. Integrated approaches are sorely needed if sustainable land use goals are to be met.

What We Hope to Accomplish

We hope to inform more sustainable landscape decision-making by providing a tool that can help people evaluate the tradeoffs between alternative land use choices.

Our tool specifically focuses on agricultural landscapes of the U.S. Corn Belt, because of the recognized negative impacts that maximizing agricultural production has had on rural communities and natural resources including soil, water, and native biodiversity in the region.

How We Go About It

PE/WI is a simple spreadsheet model designed to assist people in multidimensional land use decision-making. Model users iteratively manipulate land cover in a virtual watershed to design a watershed that meets their perceptions and goals for a well-functioning agricultural landscape. The model computes a variety of outputs, including stream sediment delivery, level of biodiversity, and economic performance, which assist them in landscape design. Click here to freely download a version of the model, which runs in Microsoft Windows Office 1997-2003.