The following paper describes recent work on NED-2, an intelligent information system for ecosyst... more The following paper describes recent work on NED-2, an intelligent information system for ecosystem management currently in development by the USDA Forest Service. Using knowledge bases created by forestry experts and inference engines, NED-2 evaluates forest inventories according to a set of predefined goals. By integrating third-party simulation and visualization packages, NED-2 allows the user to plan, predict, and assess forest treatment scenarios. NED-2 is a blackboard system featuring agents implemented in PROLOG. Inventory, data calculation, and forest management plan creation modules are implemented in C++. The primary storage medium of NED-2 is a set of relational databases. The present paper focuses upon an issue of central importance to the project: the integration of PROLOG and relational databases to form the blackboard of NED-2.
For many years we have held to the notion that an Intelligent Information System (IIS) is compose... more For many years we have held to the notion that an Intelligent Information System (IIS) is composed of a unified knowledge base, database, and model base. The main idea behind this notion is the transparent processing of user queries. The system is responsible for "deciding" which information sources to access in order to fulfil a query regardless of whether this involves a data retrieval, an inference, a computational method, a problem solving module, or some combination of these. The NED IIS project is an effort to develop a robust, intelligent, goal-driven forest ecosystem management system to help forest managers plan and achieve wildlife, ecological, water, landscape, and timber goals. NED, using a blackboard architecture dominated by semi autonomous intelligent agents, integrates a core database, domain knowledge, meta-knowledge, and a GUI with external (possibly distributed) legacy and special purpose (heterogeneous) information sources. The current version of NED is NED-2. NED-2 is still under construction, however a prototype incorporating the major components of the architecture has been completed and demonstrated.
NED-2 integrates decision support tools for forested ecosystems developed by the NED- 2 team with... more NED-2 integrates decision support tools for forested ecosystems developed by the NED- 2 team with other third-party decision support tools. NED-2 is goal-driven and is designed to help manage for visual, wildlife, and ecological as well as traditional timber goals. Several tools are included to help manage for visual goals. (1) A knowledge based system can perform analysis of visual
An Intelligent Information System (IIS) is viewed as composed of a unified knowledge base, databa... more An Intelligent Information System (IIS) is viewed as composed of a unified knowledge base, database, and model base. This allows an IIS to provide responses to user queries regardless of whether the query process involves a data retrieval, an inference, a computational method, a problem solving module, or some combination of these. NED-2 is a full-featured intelligent information system for
This paper describes research on the use of a multiobjective genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize p... more This paper describes research on the use of a multiobjective genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize prescriptive treatment plans for forest management. The algorithm is novel, in that (1) the plans generated by the algorithm are highly specific, stating precisely when and where treatments are to be applied; and (2) logical rules and inference engines developed for a decision support system
Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling... more Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling tools. These tools include vegetation growth models, wildlife models, silvicultural models, GIS, and visualization tools. NED-2 is a robust, intelligent, goal-driven decision support system that integrates tools in each of these categories. NED-2 uses a blackboard architecture and a set of semiautonomous agents to manage these tools for the user. The blackboard integrates a Microsoft Access database and Prolog clauses, and the agents are implemented in Prolog. A graphical user interface written in Visual C++ provides powerful inventory analysis tools; dialogs for selecting timber, water, ecological, wildlife, and visual goals; and dialogs for defining treatments and building prescriptive management plans. Users can simulate management plans and perform goal analysis on different views of the management unit, where a view is determined by a management plan and a point in time. Prolog agents use growth and yield models to simulate management plans, perform goal analyses on userspecified views of the management unit, display results of plan simulation using GIS tools, and generate hypertext documents containing the results of such analysis. Individual agents use metaknowledge to set up and run external simulation models, to load rule-based models and perform inference, to set up and execute external GIS and visualization systems, and to generate hypertext reports as needed, relieving the user from performing all these tasks.
NED is a collective term for a set of software intended to help resource managers develop goals, ... more NED is a collective term for a set of software intended to help resource managers develop goals, assess current and potential conditions, and produce sustainable management plans for forest properties. The software tools are being developed by the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern and Southern Research Stations, in cooperation with many other collaborators. NED-1 is a Windows-based program that helps analyze forest inventory data from the www.elsevier.com/locate/compag
NED-2 is a Windows-based system designed to improve project-level planning and decision making by... more NED-2 is a Windows-based system designed to improve project-level planning and decision making by providing useful and scientifically sound information to natural resource managers. Resources currently addressed include visual quality, ecology, forest health, timber, water, and wildlife. NED-2 expands on previous versions of NED applications by integrating treatment prescriptions, growth simulation, and alternative comparisons with evaluations of multiple resources across a management unit. The NED-2 system is adaptable for small private holdings, large public properties, or cooperative management across multiple ownerships. NED-2 implements a goal-driven decision process that ensures that all relevant goals are considered; the character and current condition of forestland are known; alternatives to manage the land are designed and tested; the future forest under each alternative is simulated; and the alternative selected achieves the owner's goals. NED-2 is designed to link with ଝ The computer programs described in this document are available with the understanding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture cannot assure their accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability for any purposes other than that reported. The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Forest Service of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.
This is the user's guide for NED-2, which is the latest version of NED, a forest ecosystem manage... more This is the user's guide for NED-2, which is the latest version of NED, a forest ecosystem management decision support system. This software is part of a family of software products intended to help resource managers develop goals, assess current and future conditions, and produce sustainable management plans for forest properties. Designed for stand-alone Windows-based personal computers, NED-2 integrates a variety of forest management tools into a single environment. These tools include databases, growth and yield models, wildlife models, geographic information systems (GIS), visualization tools, and others. The software is distributed with an online help system and a printed user's guide. This user's guide provides guidance for use of the software and a basic introduction to the principles and calculations used in NED-2. A reference guide with more detailed explanations of the models, equations, and rules that underlie the software is available separately. The NED-2 software and related documentation is included on the CD-ROM and also may be downloaded from http://nrs.fs.fed.us/tools/ned/products/ned2/.
Abstract: NED-2 is a goal-driven system designed to help manage timber, wildlife, visual, and eco... more Abstract: NED-2 is a goal-driven system designed to help manage timber, wildlife, visual, and ecological goals for a forested ecosystem. The basic approach of the decision process modeled by NED-2 is to develop alternative management plans for the stands in a management ...
Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling... more Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling tools. These tools include vegetation growth models, wildlife models, silvicultural models, GIS, and visualization tools. NED-2 is a robust, intelligent, goal-driven decision support system that integrates tools in each of these categories. NED-2 uses a blackboard architecture and a set of semi-autonomous agents to manage these tools for the user. The blackboard integrates a Microsoft Access database and Prolog clauses, and the agents are implemented in Prolog. A graphical user interface written in Visual C++ provides powerful inventory analysis tools; dialogs for selecting timber, water, ecological, wildlife, and visual goals; and dialogs for defining treatments and building prescriptive management plans. Users can simulate management plans and perform goal analysis on different views of the management unit, where a view is , : determined by a management plan and a point in time. Prolog agents use growth and yield models to simulnlE management plans, perform goal analyses on user-specified views of the management unit, display resultsof plan simulation using GIS and visualization tools, and generate hypertext documents containing the results of such analysis. Individual agents use meta-knowledge to set up and run external simulation models, to load .. rule-based models and perform inference, to set up and execute external GIS and visualization systems, and to generate hypertext reports as needed, relieving the user from performing all these tasks. The NED-2 : interface can present basic results from the simulation of alternative management plans in side-by-side displays Keywords: ecosystem management, model management, decision support system, knowledge based system, blackboard architecture, Prolog.
We present a flexible, extensible method for integrating multiple tools into a single large decis... more We present a flexible, extensible method for integrating multiple tools into a single large decision support system (DSS) using a forest ecosystem management DSS (NED-2) as an example. In our approach, a rich ontology for the target domain is developed and implemented in the internal data model for the DSS. Semi-autonomous agents control external components and communicate using a blackboard. We illustrate how this multi-agent approach with its blackboard architecture supports the expansion of a DSS (in this case, NED-2) to incorporate new models and decision support tools as they become available. The exemplar NED-2 DSS developed using this method is a goal-driven DSS that integrates a sophisticated inventory system, treatment plan development, growth-and-yield models, wildlife models, fire risk models, knowledge based systems for goal satisfaction analysis, and a powerful report generation system.
The following paper describes recent work on NED-2, an intelligent information system for ecosyst... more The following paper describes recent work on NED-2, an intelligent information system for ecosystem management currently in development by the USDA Forest Service. Using knowledge bases created by forestry experts and inference engines, NED-2 evaluates forest inventories according to a set of predefined goals. By integrating third-party simulation and visualization packages, NED-2 allows the user to plan, predict, and assess forest treatment scenarios. NED-2 is a blackboard system featuring agents implemented in PROLOG. Inventory, data calculation, and forest management plan creation modules are implemented in C++. The primary storage medium of NED-2 is a set of relational databases. The present paper focuses upon an issue of central importance to the project: the integration of PROLOG and relational databases to form the blackboard of NED-2.
For many years we have held to the notion that an Intelligent Information System (IIS) is compose... more For many years we have held to the notion that an Intelligent Information System (IIS) is composed of a unified knowledge base, database, and model base. The main idea behind this notion is the transparent processing of user queries. The system is responsible for "deciding" which information sources to access in order to fulfil a query regardless of whether this involves a data retrieval, an inference, a computational method, a problem solving module, or some combination of these. The NED IIS project is an effort to develop a robust, intelligent, goal-driven forest ecosystem management system to help forest managers plan and achieve wildlife, ecological, water, landscape, and timber goals. NED, using a blackboard architecture dominated by semi autonomous intelligent agents, integrates a core database, domain knowledge, meta-knowledge, and a GUI with external (possibly distributed) legacy and special purpose (heterogeneous) information sources. The current version of NED is NED-2. NED-2 is still under construction, however a prototype incorporating the major components of the architecture has been completed and demonstrated.
NED-2 integrates decision support tools for forested ecosystems developed by the NED- 2 team with... more NED-2 integrates decision support tools for forested ecosystems developed by the NED- 2 team with other third-party decision support tools. NED-2 is goal-driven and is designed to help manage for visual, wildlife, and ecological as well as traditional timber goals. Several tools are included to help manage for visual goals. (1) A knowledge based system can perform analysis of visual
An Intelligent Information System (IIS) is viewed as composed of a unified knowledge base, databa... more An Intelligent Information System (IIS) is viewed as composed of a unified knowledge base, database, and model base. This allows an IIS to provide responses to user queries regardless of whether the query process involves a data retrieval, an inference, a computational method, a problem solving module, or some combination of these. NED-2 is a full-featured intelligent information system for
This paper describes research on the use of a multiobjective genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize p... more This paper describes research on the use of a multiobjective genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize prescriptive treatment plans for forest management. The algorithm is novel, in that (1) the plans generated by the algorithm are highly specific, stating precisely when and where treatments are to be applied; and (2) logical rules and inference engines developed for a decision support system
Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling... more Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling tools. These tools include vegetation growth models, wildlife models, silvicultural models, GIS, and visualization tools. NED-2 is a robust, intelligent, goal-driven decision support system that integrates tools in each of these categories. NED-2 uses a blackboard architecture and a set of semiautonomous agents to manage these tools for the user. The blackboard integrates a Microsoft Access database and Prolog clauses, and the agents are implemented in Prolog. A graphical user interface written in Visual C++ provides powerful inventory analysis tools; dialogs for selecting timber, water, ecological, wildlife, and visual goals; and dialogs for defining treatments and building prescriptive management plans. Users can simulate management plans and perform goal analysis on different views of the management unit, where a view is determined by a management plan and a point in time. Prolog agents use growth and yield models to simulate management plans, perform goal analyses on userspecified views of the management unit, display results of plan simulation using GIS tools, and generate hypertext documents containing the results of such analysis. Individual agents use metaknowledge to set up and run external simulation models, to load rule-based models and perform inference, to set up and execute external GIS and visualization systems, and to generate hypertext reports as needed, relieving the user from performing all these tasks.
NED is a collective term for a set of software intended to help resource managers develop goals, ... more NED is a collective term for a set of software intended to help resource managers develop goals, assess current and potential conditions, and produce sustainable management plans for forest properties. The software tools are being developed by the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern and Southern Research Stations, in cooperation with many other collaborators. NED-1 is a Windows-based program that helps analyze forest inventory data from the www.elsevier.com/locate/compag
NED-2 is a Windows-based system designed to improve project-level planning and decision making by... more NED-2 is a Windows-based system designed to improve project-level planning and decision making by providing useful and scientifically sound information to natural resource managers. Resources currently addressed include visual quality, ecology, forest health, timber, water, and wildlife. NED-2 expands on previous versions of NED applications by integrating treatment prescriptions, growth simulation, and alternative comparisons with evaluations of multiple resources across a management unit. The NED-2 system is adaptable for small private holdings, large public properties, or cooperative management across multiple ownerships. NED-2 implements a goal-driven decision process that ensures that all relevant goals are considered; the character and current condition of forestland are known; alternatives to manage the land are designed and tested; the future forest under each alternative is simulated; and the alternative selected achieves the owner's goals. NED-2 is designed to link with ଝ The computer programs described in this document are available with the understanding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture cannot assure their accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability for any purposes other than that reported. The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Forest Service of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.
This is the user's guide for NED-2, which is the latest version of NED, a forest ecosystem manage... more This is the user's guide for NED-2, which is the latest version of NED, a forest ecosystem management decision support system. This software is part of a family of software products intended to help resource managers develop goals, assess current and future conditions, and produce sustainable management plans for forest properties. Designed for stand-alone Windows-based personal computers, NED-2 integrates a variety of forest management tools into a single environment. These tools include databases, growth and yield models, wildlife models, geographic information systems (GIS), visualization tools, and others. The software is distributed with an online help system and a printed user's guide. This user's guide provides guidance for use of the software and a basic introduction to the principles and calculations used in NED-2. A reference guide with more detailed explanations of the models, equations, and rules that underlie the software is available separately. The NED-2 software and related documentation is included on the CD-ROM and also may be downloaded from http://nrs.fs.fed.us/tools/ned/products/ned2/.
Abstract: NED-2 is a goal-driven system designed to help manage timber, wildlife, visual, and eco... more Abstract: NED-2 is a goal-driven system designed to help manage timber, wildlife, visual, and ecological goals for a forested ecosystem. The basic approach of the decision process modeled by NED-2 is to develop alternative management plans for the stands in a management ...
Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling... more Decision making for forest ecosystem management can include the use of a wide variety of modeling tools. These tools include vegetation growth models, wildlife models, silvicultural models, GIS, and visualization tools. NED-2 is a robust, intelligent, goal-driven decision support system that integrates tools in each of these categories. NED-2 uses a blackboard architecture and a set of semi-autonomous agents to manage these tools for the user. The blackboard integrates a Microsoft Access database and Prolog clauses, and the agents are implemented in Prolog. A graphical user interface written in Visual C++ provides powerful inventory analysis tools; dialogs for selecting timber, water, ecological, wildlife, and visual goals; and dialogs for defining treatments and building prescriptive management plans. Users can simulate management plans and perform goal analysis on different views of the management unit, where a view is , : determined by a management plan and a point in time. Prolog agents use growth and yield models to simulnlE management plans, perform goal analyses on user-specified views of the management unit, display resultsof plan simulation using GIS and visualization tools, and generate hypertext documents containing the results of such analysis. Individual agents use meta-knowledge to set up and run external simulation models, to load .. rule-based models and perform inference, to set up and execute external GIS and visualization systems, and to generate hypertext reports as needed, relieving the user from performing all these tasks. The NED-2 : interface can present basic results from the simulation of alternative management plans in side-by-side displays Keywords: ecosystem management, model management, decision support system, knowledge based system, blackboard architecture, Prolog.
We present a flexible, extensible method for integrating multiple tools into a single large decis... more We present a flexible, extensible method for integrating multiple tools into a single large decision support system (DSS) using a forest ecosystem management DSS (NED-2) as an example. In our approach, a rich ontology for the target domain is developed and implemented in the internal data model for the DSS. Semi-autonomous agents control external components and communicate using a blackboard. We illustrate how this multi-agent approach with its blackboard architecture supports the expansion of a DSS (in this case, NED-2) to incorporate new models and decision support tools as they become available. The exemplar NED-2 DSS developed using this method is a goal-driven DSS that integrates a sophisticated inventory system, treatment plan development, growth-and-yield models, wildlife models, fire risk models, knowledge based systems for goal satisfaction analysis, and a powerful report generation system.
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