Kaplan et al. (2026) Stakeholder-informed environmental-economic tradeoffs at the farm and forest scale

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Environmental Management
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-01-01
• Authors: D. Kaplan, Kevin Athearn, W.L. Bartels, P. Carton de Grammont, Christa D. Court, F. He, Robert Hochmuth, Unmesh Koirala, D. Lee, J. Love, Nathan Reaver, Rob de Rooij, Kristin Rowles, Andrea L. Smith, K. Schlatter, Walter B. Graham
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.128584

Research Groups

• Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
• North Florida Research and Education Center, IFAS, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
• School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
• University of Florida Water Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
• Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, USA
• Georgia Water Planning and Policy Center, Albany State University, Albany, GA, USA
• Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

Short Summary

This study developed a stakeholder-informed coupled biophysical-economic modeling platform to quantify environmental and economic tradeoffs of various agricultural and silvicultural management practices in the Floridan Aquifer region. It found that improved management practices can significantly reduce environmental impacts (e.g., nitrate leaching) while often increasing net producer returns, thereby enhancing sustainability.

Objective

• To rigorously quantify the environmental (groundwater recharge, nitrate leaching) and economic (net producer returns) tradeoffs of specific management practices (MP) for corn, peanut, carrot, hay, pasture-raised cattle, and plantation pine at the farm and forest scale in the Floridan Aquifer region.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Farm and forest scale within the Floridan Aquifer region of the southeastern United States, with a specific focus on Florida.
• Temporal Scale: Not explicitly defined for the simulation period, but focuses on assessing current and improved management practices.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Coupled Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)-MODFLOW model; Economic analyses used enterprise budgets.
• Data sources: Participatory modeling process with a broad community of stakeholders; Biophysical data for SWAT-MODFLOW simulations; SWAT yield outputs informed the economic enterprise budgets.

Main Results

• Clear synergies and tradeoffs were observed among production systems: row crops exhibited the highest economic benefits but also the largest environmental impacts (e.g., nitrate load).
• Pine and forage production systems yielded smaller economic benefits but demonstrated lower environmental impacts.
• Improved management practices dramatically reduced environmental impacts (e.g., nitrate leaching) while, in some cases, achieving higher net producer returns.
• The study utilized a three-dimensional tradeoff space (aquifer recharge-nitrate load-net financial returns) to compare the performance of different management practices.

Contributions

• Development and application of a novel, stakeholder-informed coupled biophysical-economic modeling platform for assessing environmental-economic tradeoffs at the farm and forest scale.
• Rigorous quantification of tradeoffs for specific agricultural and silvicultural management practices in the Floridan Aquifer region, demonstrating that improved practices can enhance both environmental and economic sustainability.
• Provides a framework and evidence relevant for similar agricultural regions globally, highlighting the value of participatory modeling in developing policy-relevant insights.

Funding

Not explicitly mentioned in the provided paper text snippet.

Citation

@article{Kaplan2026Stakeholderinformed,
  author = {Kaplan, D. and Athearn, Kevin and Bartels, W.L. and Grammont, P. Carton de and Court, Christa D. and He, F. and Hochmuth, Robert and Koirala, Unmesh and Lee, D. and Love, J. and Reaver, Nathan and Rooij, Rob de and Rowles, Kristin and Smith, Andrea L. and Schlatter, K. and Graham, Walter B.},
  title = {Stakeholder-informed environmental-economic tradeoffs at the farm and forest scale},
  journal = {Journal of Environmental Management},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.128584},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.128584}
}