Operations Research Management Science approaches have helped people for the last 40 years to understand the complex functioning of the systems based upon natural resources, as well as to manage natural resources in the most efficient manner. The areas usually viewed within the natural resources field are: agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and mining and water resources. All of these areas share the common problem of optimally allocating scarcity over a period of time. The scale of time or length of the planning horizon differs from one area to another. We have almost a continuous renewal in the case of the fisheries, periodic cycles in the case of agriculture and forestry and enormous periods of time much beyond the human perception in the case of mining resources. But in all the cases, the critical issue is to obtain an efficient use of the resource along its planned time horizon.

Another element of connection among the different natural resources is due to the interaction between the use of the resource and the environmental impact caused by its extraction or harvest. This type of interaction implies additional complexities in the underlying decision-making process, making the use of OR/MS tools especially relevant.

HANDBOOK OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH IN NATURAL RESOURCES will be the first systematic handbook treatment of quantitative modeling natural resource problems, their allocated efficient use, and societal and economic impact. AndrA(c)s Weintraub is the very top person in Natural Resource research. Moreover, he has an international reputation in OR and a former president of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS). He has selectedco-editors who are at the top of the sub-fields in natural resources: agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and mining. The book will cover these areas in terms with contributions from researchers on modeling natural research problems, quantifying data, developing algorithms, and discussing the benefits of research implementations. The handbook will include tutorial contributions when necessary. Throughout the book, technological advances and algorithmic developments that have been driven by natural resource problems will be called out and discussed.

Here is the first systematic handbook treatment of quantitative modeling natural resource problems, their allocated efficient use, and societal and economic impact. Andres Weintraub is the very top person in Natural Resource research. He has selected co-editors who are at the top of the sub-fields in natural resources: agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and mining. The book covers these areas with contributions from researchers on, among others, modeling natural research problems, quantifying data, and developing algorithms."

Following the publication of seminal papers by professors H. S. Gordon in 1954 and A. D. Scott in 1955, active research has led to rapid progress in our understanding of the economics of fisheries. Fishing, however, is a complicated activity involving intricate interactions between man-made fishing capital and naturally produced fish stocks in an inherently dynamic and stochastic setting. Consequently, in spite of significant advances, important sections of fisheries economics remain largely unexplored. One such area is the economics of migratory fish stocks. In 1985, the editors of this volume embarked on a research project concerned with the optimal utilization of common Nordic fish stocks. A fundamental feature of some of the most important of these fish stocks, such as the Atlanto-Scandian herring and the Icelandic capelin, is their migratory behaviour. Not only do the migrations continuously alter the economic conditions for harvesting these species. They also result in the periodical transfer of stock concentrations from one exclusive fisheries jurisdictions to another. It was readily apparent that this behaviour constituted a crucial determinant of the appropriate harvesting pattern of these stocks. More importantly, however, migrations are by no means a unique feature of Nordic fish stocks. In fact, it appears that migratory behaviour is exhibited, albeit in varying degrees, by all species of fish. It therefore stands to reason that migrations constitute an important aspect of the economics of fisheries in general.

Over the past several decades there has been increasing interest in, and concern about, the economics of the world's capture fishery resources. Massive amounts of resource rent are being lost because of inadequate management and major rebuilding of fishery resources is called for. This book draws together the latest economic theory of the management of these resources, at both the national and the international levels, and highlights areas where further research is urgently required. The emphasis is on world capture fisheries, rather than fisheries of specific regions, and examples are drawn upon from both developed and developing countries. It combines economic theory and empirical testing with an examination and analysis of resource policy options, with particular emphasis on fisheries management polices at the international level, where some of the most difficult resource management problems are found. The authors maintain that capture fishery resources are properly viewed as a part of society's portfolio of natural capital assets. Consequently, a central theme of the book is that managing such resources should be viewed as asset management through time. Written by two leading authorities, this accessible textbook has been specially developed to meet the needs of students taking courses on fisheries management as well as professionals working in this area for governments and international organisations.