Introduction to the DSS minitrack on integrated modeling environments

The use of models to support problem solving is an established tradition in several disciplines. Modeling environments are software systems designed to support the modeling process. Several types of models are used in association with decision support systems. These range from structured system development models that are used to guide the development of decision support systems (DSS) to various types of mathematical and data models used within a DSS to support decision making. Often effective problem solving requires the ability to work with and integrate models derived from more than one paradigm. Integrated modeling environments are software systems that support this important additional dimension of the modeling process. The paper contains a representative sample of research in the modeling environments and model management literature