Differential reproduction, the mechanism by which natural selection operates, is a criterion against which development decisions can be evaluated. The specific decision for which the criterion is used is in determining the relationship between alternatives open to the developers and the mechanisms of social control available to regulatory agencies as each evaluated a housing development along the Willamette River, Oregon.
Accepting a global perspective, based on the systems modeling of Forrester, leads to the conclusion that for this housing development and other developments like it, alternatives should be managed to promote rehabilitation and reuse of land and resources, and mechanisms of social control should be established to limit continued resource exploitation. A global perspective, however, is unlikely in development decisions which are made to benefit specific groups of people until the global impacts of their actions can be shown to affect them.