A TOOLKIT APPROACH TO DEVELOPING FOREST MANAGEMENT ADVISORY SYSTEMS IN PROLOG

The Forest Management Advisory System (FMAS) is a decision support sys tem for the management of even-aged stands of aspen and red pine. FMAS integrates a knowledge-based system for treatment prescription, previ ously published growth and yield simulation models for aspen and red p ine, hypertext encyclopedias of aspen and red pine management, and a v ariety of help facilities. A Decision Support System Toolkit (DSSTOOLS ), written in Prolog, was used to develop the knowledge-based system a nd to integrate it with the already existing growth and yield models a nd hypertext systems. DSSTOOLS currently consists of three major compo nents: (1) a blackboard architecture and the routines to maintain it; (2) a set of user interface tools, including powerful explanation faci lities; and (3) a suite of inference engines. The toolkit approach all owed us to develop FMAS quickly by reusing routines in the toolkit. Mo st of the current toolkit modules were developed while rewriting a nat ive-Prolog forest management advisory system for red pine to run in th e Windows 3.1 environment. With this experience and using the toolkit extensively, the aspen system was coded. In its current form, FMAS is most useful for supporting traditional forest management decision maki ng with a focus on single stands where timber products are the only ob jectives.