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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Tucson, Arizona » SWRC » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #266795
Title: The Future Role of Information Technology in Erosion Modelling

Author
item GUERTIN, D. - University Of Arizona
item Goodrich, David - Dave

Submitted to: Handbook of Erosion Modeling
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/2010
Publication Date: 2/1/2011
Citation: Guertin, D.P., Goodrich, D.C. 2011. The Future Role of Information Technology in Erosion Modelling. In: Morgan, R.P. and M.A. Nearing (eds.). Handbook of Erosion Modelling. Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, Chichester, West Sussex, UK. pps. 324-338.

Interpretive Summary: Natural resources management and decision-making is a complex process requiring cooperation and communication among federal, state, and local stakeholders balancing environmental and socio-economic concerns. Predicting soil erosion is common practice in natural resource management for assessing the effects of management practices and control techniques. Effective decision-making requires the integration of knowledge, data, simulation models, and expert judgment to solve practical problems and provide a scientific basis for decision-making. User-friendly decision support system (DSS) can assist different professional or stakeholder groups to develop, understand and evaluate alternative soil conservation strategies. The difficulty in developing a DSS is not a lack of available data or simulation models for erosion prediction, but rather making these models easily available to decision makers. The solution to this problem is the development of internet-based tools that support erosion modeling and conservation planning include applications to facilitate sharing data sets and software, direct data visualization, and online simulation. A review desired attributes of internet erosion tools and their current status is provided.

Technical Abstract: Natural resources management and decision-making is a complex process requiring cooperation and communication among federal, state, and local stakeholders balancing biophysical and socio-economic concerns. Predicting soil erosion is common practice in natural resource management for assessing the effects of management practices and control techniques. Effective decision-making requires the integration of knowledge, data, simulation models, and expert judgment to solve practical problems and provide a scientific basis for decision-making. User-friendly decision support system (DSS) can assist different professional or stakeholder groups to develop, understand and evaluate alternative soil conservation strategies. The difficulty in developing a DSS is not a lack of available data or simulation models for erosion prediction, but rather making these models easily available to decision makers. The solution to this problem is the development of internet-based tools that support erosion modeling and conservation planning include applications to facilitate sharing data sets and software, direct data visualization, and online simulation. A review desired attributes of internet erosion tools and their current status is provided.