VEB-Econ: A Vegetative Environmental Buffer Decision-Support Tool for Environmental Quality Management

Purposefully planted tree and shrub systems called Vegetative Environmental Buffers (VEBs) have been shown to be biophysically effective in intercepting, filtering, and diluting odor-laden air streams associated with animal production sites. This article overviews the web-based VEB planning and desi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forestry 2018-11, Vol.116 (6), p.573-580
Main Authors: Tyndall, John, Randall, Jesse
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural production
Agriculture
Ammonia
Animal production
Automation
Buffers
Community relations
Conservation
Costs
Design
Environmental management
Environmental quality
Filtration
Financial analysis
Hogs
Information systems
Livestock
Natural resources
Odor
Odors
Photomapping
Planning
Plantations
Quality management
Resource conservation
Resource management
Software
Soil mapping
Trees
Windbreaks
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Summary:Purposefully planted tree and shrub systems called Vegetative Environmental Buffers (VEBs) have been shown to be biophysically effective in intercepting, filtering, and diluting odor-laden air streams associated with animal production sites. This article overviews the web-based VEB planning and design program called VEB-Econ. VEB-Econ allows users to locate the site of current or planned animal production facilities within a high-resolution photomapping GIS (Google Earth). Users use to-scale drawing tools to delineate boundaries, roads, animal buildings, and other structures, so as to parameterize idealized tree-row locations. Users specify the number of desired tree rows, preferred tree-row protection zones, etc. Layered into the mapping tool is a soil database linking tree species to soil-based tree suitability recommendations. VEB-Econ estimates the total annualized costs for tree establishment, long-term management, any opportunity costs, and factors in available Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentive Program cost-share programming for VEBs. Additionally, VEB-Econ can be used to design field and homestead windbreaks or small plantations.
ISSN:0022-1201
1938-3746
DOI:10.1093/jofore/fvy051