Pyroxene

Medium term management of territorial risk increase requires decision support tools able to represent and simulate spatial dynamics. For forest fire risk, simulators of spatial dynamics of both fuel zones and vulnerable zones are produced by specialised disciplines, like ecology and geography. In order to integrate simulators of spatial dynamics of different themes at different scale levels, this paper proposes a spatial agent and GIS based software infrastructure called Pyroxene. This infrastructure is designed to implement “models for models integration”, specified by domain expert users. To do so, end users have to use a specification framework, specifically designed for spatio-dynamic models integration. The purpose of the implemented platform is to execute and synchronise integrated simulations. To operate the semantic and syntax requirements of such integration, the platform is structured in an HLA-like architecture, and implemented as a multi-agents system for models integration, compliant with the FIPA specification. It is also organised around a GIS. First steps of validation confirm the validity of the system at the functional level and precise the limits of using the approach on the operational level.

An Ontology-Based Framework for Authoring Tools in the Domain of Sustainable Energy Education

This paper presents an ontology-based framework for the production of learning designs, focusing on the domain of sustainable energy education. An ontology of the sustainable energy development domain and educational model designed in compliance with widespread standards constitute the proposed framework to disprove the vagueness of “sustainable development” and enhance reusability and shareability of learning material respectively. The authors envisage this framework both as a means to support the authoring of learning scenarios and as a provisioning of a field for conversation about the appropriate authoring tool in this area. In this sense, an integrating approach for the representation of the learning design domain is kept, focusing on the concept of “mediating artefacts”.

A Systematic Approach for Managing the Risk Related to Semantic Interoperability between Geospatial Datacubes

Geospatial datacubes are the database backend of novel types of spatiotemporal decision-support systems employed in large organizations. These datacubes extend the datacube concept underlying the field of Business Intelligence (BI) into the realm of geospatial decision-support and geographic knowledge discovery. The interoperability between geospatial datacubes facilitates the reuse of their content. Such interoperability, however, faces risks of data misinterpretation related to the heterogeneity of geospatial datacubes. Although the interoperability of transactional databases has been the subject of several research works, no research dealing with the interoperability of geospatial datacubes exists. In this paper, the authors support the semantic interoperability between geospatial datacubes and propose a categorization of semantic heterogeneity problems that may occur in geospatial datacubes. Additionally, the authors propose an approach to deal with the related risks of data misinterpretation, which consists of evaluating the fitness-for-use of datacubes models, and a general framework that facilitates making appropriate decisions about such risks. The framework is based on a hierarchical top-down structure going from the most general level to the most detailed level, showing the usefulness of the proposed approach in environmental applications.

A Conceptual Model of Grassland-Based Beef Systems

Fulfilling the production objectives of a grassland-based beef system requires a robust management strategy to secure the best practicable use of forage resources with regard to the cattle demand. To address the challenging issue of designing such strategies, this article describes the application of an ontology of agricultural production systems to the generic conceptual model SEDIVER, which supports the representation and dynamic farm-scale simulation of specific grassland-based beef systems. The most salient and novel aspects of SEDIVER concern the explicit modeling of (a) the diversity in plant, grassland, animal and farmland, and (b) management strategies that deal with the planning and coordination of activities whereby the farmer controls the biophysical processes. By using the SEDIVER conceptual framework, part of the subjective and context-specific knowledge used in farm management can be captured and, in this way, enable scientific investigation of management practices.

The Role of Crop Systems Simulation in Agriculture and Environment

Simulation of crop systems has evolved from a neophyte science into a robust and increasingly accepted discipline. Our vision is that crop systems simulation can serve important roles in agriculture and environment. Important roles and uses of crop systems simulation are in five primary areas: (1) basic research synthesis and integration, where simulation is used to synthesize our understanding of physiology, genetics, soil characteristics, management, and weather effects, (2) strategic tools for planning and policy to evaluate strategies and consequences of genetic improvement or resource management, (3) applications for management purposes, where crop systems simulations are used to evaluate impacts of weather and management on production, water use, nutrient use, nutrient leaching, and economics, (4) real time decision support to assist in management decisions (irrigation, fertilization, sowing date, harvest, yield forecast, pest management), and (5) education in class rooms and farms, to explain how crop systems function and are managed.

Using Soclab for a Rigorous Assessment of the Social Feasibility of Agricultural Policies

This paper presents a theoretical and methodological framework to take into consideration the social dimension in a sustainable development project. To do this, the authors have developed the SocLab software environment, which implements a formalization of a well-established sociological theory, and enables the modeling of social organizations, to analyze their properties and to simulate social actors’ behaviors. SocLab was used to assess the social acceptability of new agricultural practices more in line with the preservation of water resources and natural environments, in a well defined context. The paper shows how it was used and presents the main results.

Describing Spatio-Temporal Phenomena for Environmental System Development

This paper is composed of two parts dealing with the modeling of environmental phenomena. The first part presents the traditional ER and OO formalisms dedicated to geographic information modeling. These languages focus mainly on representing the spatial and temporal properties of this type of information. Many of these languages express these properties visually by using pictograms. After a quick historical presentation of the languages, the authors show the various types of spatiality and temporality usually encountered in these languages. Often qualified as primitive, some of these spatialities and temporalities are simple. Others, which are more complex, result from combinations of simple spatialities and simple temporalities. Still others are used in very specific situations encountered during the development of geographical information systems. These different spatialities and temporalities are presented via examples provided in the field of environmental dynamics.

Spatial Pattern Mining for Soil Erosion Characterization

The protection and the maintenance of the exceptional environment of New Caledonia are major goals for this territory. Among environmental problems, erosion has a strong impact on terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. However, due to the volume of data and its complexity, assessment of hazard at a regional scale is time-consuming, costly and rarely updated. Therefore, understanding and predicting environmental phenomenons need advanced techniques of analysis and modelization. In order to improve the understanding of the erosion phenomenon, this paper proposes a spatial approach based on co-location mining and GIS. Considering a set of Boolean spatial features, the goal of co-location mining is to find subsets of features often located together. This system provides useful and interpretable knowledge based on a new interestingness measure for co-locations and a new visualization of the discovered knowledge. The interestingness measure better reflects the importance of a co-location for the experts, and is completely integrated in the mining process. The visualization approach is a simple, concise and intuitive representation of the co-locations that takes into consideration the spatial nature of the underlying objects and the experts practice.

SimExplorer

This article describes Simexplorer, a computer framework for managing simulation experiments and, to some extent, the scientific quality of the modelling process. An information system, included in the framework, insures the traceability of the experiments and their reproducibility and thus contributes to the modelling process quality management. Moreover, this information system provides facilities for sharing and exchanging components of experiment scenarios. The authors illustrate the use of the framework on a simple example of modelling process.

On the Use of Abduction as an Alternative to Decision Trees in Environmental Decision Support Systems

Although decision trees are frequently used in environmental decision support systems, they have shortcomings. In the case of an available model, decision trees have to be constructed manually from the model. Moreover, not all knowledge is represented in the decision tree. To overcome this issue, the author proposes the use of abductive reasoning directly applied to the available cause-effect model. In particular the abduction problem the author introduces (i.e., the problem of finding a cause for observed effects), shows how this problem can be extended to allow distinguishing between competing explanations, and discusses the integration of testing and repair actions within the framework. The latter is especially important in case of environmental decision support systems.