Abstract. 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. Keywords. Intelligent Information System, Decision Support System, PROLOG, Relational Database System, Blackboard System 1 Overview NE...
Frederick Maier, Donald Nute, Walter D. Potter, Ji