NRM TOOLS - A FLEXIBLE DECISION-SUPPORT ENVIRONMENT FOR INTEGRATED CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT

Decision making in natural resource management is characterised by com plex decisions based on incomplete data. Furthermore, the structure of the decision-making process tends to be unstable, being highly contex t specific. Investment in specific and tightly focused decision suppor t systems in this context may often not be justified. A prototype soft ware toolkit, NRM Tools, designed to provide flexible decision support in this context, the use of which can evolve as tasks and understandi ng evolve, is described. The defining feature of NRM Tools is that it is designed to allow decision makers in natural resource management to develop new decision support tools to address new tasks through recom bination of existing data resources and analytical tools (models and i nference engines for example). This is achieved through the use of a t ask language comprising a set of primitives (functions for data access , analysis and presentation) and a set of control structures for combi nation of those primitives. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.