DEVELOPING CONTEXT-DRIVEN DECISION-SUPPORT FRAMEWORK TO IMPROVE REGION-SCALE MANAGEMENT OF ANIMAL BYPRODUCTS

<p>Developing a region-wide decision-support framework to guide manure management can significantly improve management outcomes and thereby achieve the goals of sustainability improvements. This is primarily due to relying on context-specific data to inform decision-making and overcome barriers that vexed conventional approaches. The proposed research project will develop and implement the proposed framework for North Carolina animal production regions through:1) developing nutrient use budgets to establish a manure use baseline.2) developing alternative utilization pathways to address region-specific impacts of current utilization.3) developing techno-economic assessment (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) models to evaluate potential pathways.4) implementing multi-objective optimization to assess optimal pathways to maximize net environmental and economic utility.5) developing recommendations to guide adoption of alternative pathways and potential improvements to close the gap facing adoption.</p>