The OR Society, The Operational Research Society (Operational Research, OR, Data Analysis, Forecasting, Decision Support, Statistics, Simulation, Spreadsheet modelling, Yield Management, System, Linear, Strategy, Performance Measurement, Multivariate)

Agriculture and Natural Resources Special Interest Group

Special Interest Groups and Regional Societies

Agriculture and Natural Resources

Scope

We aim to encapsulate the management of all of the biotic primary production industries (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, etc) and their underpinning natural resources (soils, water, ecosystems, etc), at policy, strategic and tactical levels. This definition includes the production of goods and [ecosystem] services as well as their related chains or webs of secondary industries and logistics. It is application orientated and not restricted to any particular method. Some of these methods will, of necessity, have been applied in a very innovative manner.

The governance and management of these industries place this area at the vanguard of operational research's contribution to sustainability. This Special Interest Group offers a platform for those working on such issues.

Purpose

Generally, to further the OR Society's charitable objectives: All activities will be directed towards the furtherance of these objectives, which are:

the advancement of the knowledge and interest of Operational Research, and
the advancement of the education of Operational Research.

Specifically, the aim is to create a fraternity of practitioners and academics within our scope to:

Encourage the practice of OR
Publicise the application of OR and thus elevate its profile amongst stakeholders
Advance the science and application of OR

Activities

As a minimum, we will hold a general meeting every two years.

2008-2009 Plan for relaunch

2008-2009 PLAN FOR RELAUNCH

The aim of the relaunch phase is to obtain sufficient interest to enable the group to hold at least one half day technical meeting per year.

The proposed chair and secretary are currently working closely with the EURO Working Group on Operational Research in Agriculture and Forest Management (EWG-ORAFM) to organise to agriculture and natural resources stream at OR50.

The abstracts of this stream, and future technical meetings, will be published as an abstract of communication in the Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge to further promote our activities and their science.

In part the OR50 conference stream will be a partial relaunch meeting, but given the costs of the conference package it should not be the only meeting. One other relaunch meeting with technical content is planned in the first 12 months. This will double up as a general meeting. It remains to be seen if it can be free to attend because the geographic sparsity of those working in this field it is anticipated that meetings will need to include lunch to justify the travel involved. The anticipated date for this meeting is February 2009.

COMMITTEE / CONTACT DETAILS

Chair	Professor Tahir Rehman School of Agriculture , Policy and Development, New Agriculture Building, University of Reading , Earley Gate PO Box 237 Reading RG6 7RP UK Tel: +44 (0) 118 378 8480 Fax: +44 (0) 118 935 2421 Email: t.u.rehman@reading.ac.uk
Secretary (and contact)	Mr Daniel L. Sandars. Natural Resources Management Centre, Bldg 42a, School of Applied Science Cranfield University , Cranfield, Bedfordshire , MK43 0AL, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1234 750111 extn. 2742 Fax: +44 (0) 1234 752971 Email: daniel.sandars@cranfield.ac.uk

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The OR Society is a trading name of the Operational Research Society, which is registered in
England, a company limited by guarantee No 663819 and a registered charity No 313713