V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE WORK At this point in time, no firm conclusions are offered by the Rice University team regarding potential sites. There are several reasons for not making these conclusions. First, each of the synthesis maps needs to be considered in more detail to more adequately understand the spatial impacts of the variables and combinations of variables. Secondly, additional syntheses need to be performed to see the effects of certain other combinations of variables. However, Summary Maps 7, 8 and 10 appear to be most meaningful of the maps created under this contract. It must be said that "eligible" areas do emerge under from the summary combinations of variables, but the need exists for more information about these "eligible" areas before specific sites may be suggested. The conclusion that a rectenna could be located in any of these "eligible" areas is clearly not warranted. A major concern of the research team is that these summary maps will be taken out of context and be set forth as identifying preferred sites without any accompanying information indicating the data collection methodology and limitations. The approach taken does appear to be well adapted to these types of large scale, locational problems. The overall framework established in this study is highly adaptible, and both the scale and the number of variables considered can be altered. With respect to the overall availability of 3 million acres of land, two distinct issues must be identified. First, there is the issue of whether or not 3 million available acres exist in the proper geographic region of the United States. Secondly, there is the issue of whether the United States is willing to dedicate such available land to receiving antennas. Although 3 million acres of land represents less than 0.2% of the total land area of the United States, it is important to note that in 1969, urban land uses were determined to utilize 35 million acres. In other words, 60 rectenna sites would represent almost 9% of the total
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