Optimal Control of Invasive Species with Budget Constraint: Qualitative Analysis and Numerical Approximation

The containment of the invasive species is a widespread problem in the environmental management, with a significant economic impact. We analyze an optimal control model which aims to find the best temporal resource allocation strategy for the removal of an invasive species. We derive the optimality system in the state and control variables and we use the phase-space analysis to provide qualitative insights about the behavior of the optimal solution. Finally, for the state-costate variables which satisfy a boundary-valued nearly-Hamiltonian system, we propose exponential Lawson symplectic approximations applied in the forward-backward form. The numerical results related to an example of invasive plant considered in Baker, et al. (Nat Resour Model 31(4):e12190, 2018), confirm the qualitative findings provided by the state-control analysis.