APPLICATION OF LOGIC PROGRAMMING TO DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN ECOLOGY

The complexity of ecological systems makes it difficult for resource managers to be rigorous in their decision making. It is impossible to include all the detail of a natural system within a simulation model, so it is necessary to isolate a few key features of the system and represent these in a form that remains faithful to the original while being computationally tractable. Unfortunately, it is easy to be vague about what requirements must be met by a model of a system, making it impossible to validate in terms of more general management objectives. More attention should be paid to representing explicitly the expertise employed by resource managers in describing ecological problems and analyzing arguments about how they might be solved. Techniques from logic programming may be used to support parts of this process: providing guidance during model construction; assisting in validating the model; handling non-deterministic, qualitative information; and analyzing ecological knowledge bases.