A GIS-based database management application for agroforestry planning and tree selection

Agroforestry (the deliberate growing of trees or shrubs in rural lands) is being promoted in the United States as an alternative resource management s ystem that can bring landowners economic benefits and provide environmental services such as reduced soil erosion, improved water quality and wildlife habitat. Landowners, farmers and extension agents need to be better inform ed about different agroforestry opportunities and potential tree species. T he Florida Agroforestry Decision Support System (FADSS) was designed to aid in the dissemination of such information. FADSS utilizes a geographical in formation system (GIS) enabling the user to select a location of interest w hich is linked to spatial data on climate and soils characteristics for the state of Florida. The application also incorporates a database of over 500 trees and 50 tree attributes, forming a relational database. The applicati on structure consists primarily of building database queries using Standard Query Language (SQL). SQL queries are constructed during run-time based on spatial parameters of a selected location, the type of agroforestry system desired, and production and management criteria provided by the user. Expe rts were interviewed to help develop queries used to select trees and other agroforestry species. Being a prototype, the application is built with a m odular and flexible framework in which spatial data of different scales and /or regions as well as plant data may be easily incorporated. Among the maj or limitations encountered during the development of FADSS with major impli cations on future agroforestry decision support systems was the current lac k of tree information relevant to agroforestry and the lack of research inv olving the assessment of suitable trees and their characteristics. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.