The agricultural , forestry, recreational and wildlife opportunity cost of pipelines, hydro lines and highways / William P. Barto

The opportunity cost of conveyance crridors; highways, hydro lines and pipelines is the monetary value of resource uses foregone; the lost value of physical production resulting from the allocation of land to right-of-way use. Theoretical models were developed for calculating the resource uses foregone and under the criteria of measurability and availability of data, practical equations for conveyance corridors traversing agricultural and forested areas were formulated. Use of pracitcal equations was illustrated by creating hypothetical corridors through the Municipalities of Elton and North Cypress (agricultural application) and through Township 61, Ranges 27 and 28 (forestry application). Conflict between rights-of-way and recreational areas was difficult to quantify and strict economic analysis of opportunity costs was not possible. An alternative technique of reclamation, reparation and mitigation (RRM) was therefore proposed for evaluating opportunity costs. Difficulty in definin