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Forest-energy plantations have been recognized as a possible source of renewable energy throughout the world, but the regional consequences of extensive plantation development have not been considered. In an effort to understand better the trade-offs that exist between economic, environmental, and energy concerns associated with regional development projects, a goal-programming model of forest-energy plantation development in Eastern Ontario, Canada has been developed. The results indicate not only the potential for energy plantations, but the utility in using goal-programming as a resource-assessment tool as well. The method is particularly useful in identifying potential conflicts among regional development goals, and can also address uncertainties with respect to decision priorities and production relationships.

The relationships between economic activity and energy use have been a matter of interest, in particular since the disruptions to energy markets in the 1970s. Input — Output models provide a convenient methodology by which to identify energy-use intensities of economic sectors at a disaggregate level. Moreover, if there exist at least two compatible tables displaced temporally, it is possible to identify changes in the energy intensity of economic activity through time. The use of energy in the New Zealand economy is estimated for each of the years 1971/72 and 1981/82 by means of Input — Output tables. Subsequent analysis is directed at identifying the relative contributions of changes in the technological coefficients and changes in the pattern of final demand to overall change in energy intensity over the ten-year period. Results suggest that the energy intensity of economic activity in New Zealand, unlike many other industrialised nations, has increased appreciably during the decade under consideration.