This paper proposes a new method, called linear grouping algorithm (LGA), to detect different linear structures in a data set. LGA is useful for investigating potential linear patterns in datasets, that is, subsets that follow different linear relationships. LGA combines ideas from principal components, clustering methods and resampling algorithms. It can detect several different linear relatio...

This paper investigates the direct and indirect impacts of ethanol production on land use, deforestation and food production. A partial equilibrium model of a national economy with two sectors and two regions, one of which includes a residual forest, is developed. It analyses how an exogenous increase in the ethanol price a ects input allocation (land and labor) between sectors (energy crop and...

Proper specification of model parameters is critical to the performance of land surface models (LSMs). Due to high dimensionality and parameter interaction, estimating parameters of an LSM is a challenging task. Sensitivity analysis (SA) is a tool that can screen out the most influential parameters on model outputs. In this study, we conducted parameter screening for six output fluxes for the C...

This study takes advantages of recent developments in measuring total factor productivity in output specific directions to examine the influence of technological change in different agricultural sectors on land-use decisions in a cross-section of countries from 1969 to 2001. Results demonstrate a positive relationship between productivity and land in agriculture in most cases. The ruminant sect...

Water resources play a vital role in human life and agriculture irrigation, especially for agriculture-dominant developing countries and regions. Improving agricultural water use efficiency has consequently become a key strategic choice. This study, based on Zhangye City’s economic characteristics and data, applies a static Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model with a constant elasticity o...

This paper shows that the asymmetric information present in the relationship between the government and agricultural producers has led to persistent problems in the application of land taxes (Imposto Territorial Rural – ITR) in Brazil. The main result is that, when the asymmetric information is taken into account, some use of output taxes in the optimal tax scheme may be more desirable than a p...

Integrated hydrologic models coupled to land surface models require several input parameters to characterize the land surface and to estimate energy fluxes. Uncertainty of input parameter values is inherent in any model and the sensitivity of output to these uncertain parameters becomes an important consideration. To better understand these connections in the context of hydrologic models, we us...

urmia lake is the largest lake in the country which during recent years faces a dramatic reduction in the water level. many reasons such as climate change, continuous droughts, development of cultivation and land use changes as well as construction of dams were mentioned, but the provided reasons have less been well documented by scientific evidences. this study is an attempt to investigate the...