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Most land management policies, such as land retirement, have multiple objectives. This study uses a cellular automata simulation model to explore how various spatial characteristics of land parcels on a hypothetical landscape contribute to the efficacy of land retirement in the presence of multiple retirement objectives- hydrological improvement, habitat improvement, and cost. Statistical analysis of the simulation results is used to tie particular spatial characteristics back to achievement of the three distinct objectives. In order to combine the three objectives into a measure that allows decision-makers to rank the desirability of different retirement strategies, linear and nonlinear goal programming frameworks are introduced. These frameworks are explored to determine what each implies about the tradeoffs that must be made among objectives and among the spatial land parcel characteristics that contribute to those objectives.
