Scienti c research addressing global change continues to generate large quantities of information for analysis and understanding. However, the volume, distributed nature, and diversity of this information prohibits convenient access by many potential users. This paper describes the object-oriented analysis and design of a prototype system consisting of an integrated collection of software tools that allows a user to manipulate disparate data sets through a graphical user interface (GUI). The tool, enforms (Environmental Information System), is currently populated with environmental information for use in a regional watershed analysis project. In addition, the bene ts, with respect to extensibility, maintainability, and integration, from using an object-oriented approach in combination with a multi-layered organization are discussed.
Betty H. C. Cheng, Robert H. Bourdeau, Gerald C. G