Knowledge-based Information Management in Decision Support for Ecosystem Management in the Pacific Northwest U.S

The Pacific Northwest Research Station (USDA Forest Service) is developing a knowledge-based information management system to provide decision support for watershed analysis in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. The decision support system includes: (1) a GIS interface that allows users to graphically navigate to specific provinces and watersheds and display a variety of themes (vegetation, streams, roads, topography, etc.) and other area-specific information (relevant regulations, existence and location of analyses, plans, etc.), (2) an analysis component that helps identify major concerns and the hierarchies of associated ecosystem processes requiring analysis, and assists the user in selecting an appropriate subset of analyses and in identifying and prioritizing data requirements and their sources, (3) a report manager that displays the history, status, and details of analyses, and that documents the analysis process, (4) a project manager that assists with planning and monitoring of data acquisition, and (5) a hypermedia system that provides powerful navigation tools for accessing information in various policy and procedure documents. The core of the system is the analysis component which contains dependency networks that link problem-solving knowledge about concerns, ecosystem processes, and data to specific landscape units. The goal dependency approach provides a scientifically sound method for determining data requirements, as well as a basis for prioritizing, acquiring, and evaluating information for watershed analyses. An initial set of concerns that comes from the public participation process expands into a more complete set of concerns that reflects underlying ecological associations. This network approach thus explicitly accounts for both public values and ecological processes.