Ecosystem Management Decision Support

The Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system is an application framework for knowledge-based decision support of ecological analysis and planning at any geographic scale.

EMDS integrates state-of-the-art geographic information system (GIS) as well as logic programming and decision modeling technologies in the Microsoft Windows environment to provide decision support for a substantial portion of the adaptive management process of ecosystem management.

EMDS uses Criterium DecisionPlus from InfoHarvest, Inc. and NetWeaver from Rules of Thumb, Inc. as core components. The NetWeaver component performs logic-based evaluation of environmental data, and logically synthesizes evaluations to infer the state of landscape features such as watersheds (e.g., watershed condition). The DecisionPlus component prioritizes landscape features with respect to user-defined management objectives (e.g., watershed restoration), using summarized outputs from NetWeaver as well as additional logistical information considered important to the decision maker(s). See the section below for a current list of published papers by application area.

EMDS was originally developed by the United States Forest Service, but is currently being maintained by the Redlands Institute of the University of Redlands.

Several citations provide extensive background on the EMDS system and its potential applications.

Applications

 * 1) Watershed analysis
 * 2) Wetlands management
 * 3) Design and siting of ecological reserves
 * 4) Conservation
 * 5) Land classification
 * 6) Landscape restoration
 * 7) Wildlife habitat management
 * 8) Urban growth and development
 * 9) Evaluation of wildland fire danger
 * 10) Ecosystem sustainability