A cost-effective programmable environment for developing environmental decision support systems

This paper presents the TRACE system, a software platform for the development of Environmental Decision Support Systems, which is currently under development and will be available by late 1998. The main objective of the TRACE technology is to support the user in the real-time management of environmental emergencies, by rapidly assessing a crisis situation and building an effective intervention plan, which exploits the available operational resources at best. The first part of the paper presents the conceptual framework of the TRACE system, including user and application modelling methodologies, tools and techniques. Next the design framework is presented, including the architecture of the system and a selection of relevant modules (namely the resource manager, the dependency manager and the constraint reasoner). The TRACE approach is then illustrated by a pilot application that will support decision making in the case of wind-throw management in Romanian forests. The related works are considered within the context of the other relevant research projects.