DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR WETLAND MANAGEMENT ON RATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES

We have begun to develop a cooperative, decision support system for as sisting staff of national wildlife refuges with integrated management of wetlands. The need for setting local objectives and local annual pr ograms within multiple geographic and temporal scales indicates a need to integrate several computer-assisted strategies, including AI techn iques and geographic information systems. We are currently in the prob lem analysis stage and are concentrating on identifying appropriate ap proaches for the overall system and for individual modules within the system. Preliminary work has begun on the habitat dynamics model using an expert system shell to gain a better appreciation for some of the ecological principles involved. We anticipate that full development of the final system will require several years.