Using GIS-based ecological–economic modeling to evaluate policies affecting agricultural watersheds

This paper has three purposes. The first is to conceptualize agricultural watersheds as complex adaptive human ecosystems that co-produce agricultural goods and ecosystem services. The second is to demonstrate a generalizable framework for the spatial modeling of ecosystem service production in watersheds based on this conceptualization. The third is to examine the policy implications of the analysis conducted using this spatial decision support system (SDSS). Analyses using the SDSS show that restrictions on soil loss to the “tolerance level” (T) cause average farm income to decline by only 4%, a reduction that is nearly eliminated if the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is available to farmers as an income-generating alternative. [...]