access to technical results that are presented in formats amenable to stakeholder use. This toolkit would include visualization capabilities similar to
those provided for decision makers.
Of these four toolkit types or functions, the modeler’s toolkit has experienced the most development to date (see the Sidebar 12.1 for examples of
such development). The conceptual toolkit has the greatest development
left to conduct, but it most likely has the greatest potential payback associated with its use in environmental management.
General issues of toolkit design and functionality are presented in the
next section. More specific information for each toolkit is provided immediately thereafter. Note that these toolkits actually represent specific types
of functionality required by the user. As discussed in this chapter, such functionality could be supplied by four independent, but linked, toolkits or
through one master toolkit with differing levels of functionality.
12.2 General Issues of Toolkit Design and Functionality
Clearly, the potential users (and uses) determine the different purposes for
developing a toolkit. Modelers may want to use a toolkit to set up a model,
to calibrate and verify it, and to present model results. Stakeholders, alternatively, might wish to mine databases, to assess differing management
alternatives, and to conduct tradeoff analyses. As a result, the functional
requirements for a modeler’s toolkit could differ greatly from the requirements for the stakeholder’s or the decision maker’s toolkit. It is therefore
essential that any toolkit be developed with its ultimate audience in mind.
The more general building blocks of toolkit development are presented in
Figure 12.2, and each building block is discussed below.
12.2.1 Web Empowerment and Implementation
Among the general building blocks of any toolkit, none is perhaps more
important than that of being “Web empowered.” The use of the Internet
and the World Wide Web is a phenomenon of increasing commercial and
social significance. At present, it is common for managers, stakeholders, and
modelers to use digital elevation models, contaminant fate and effects data,
urban landscape data (e.g., locations of roads, population centers, and industrial complexes), land-cover and land-use data, and soil information that are
obtained from Internet sources. However, the data needed by these differing groups are seldom resident on a single Web site. The ability of different
decision makers, from local resource managers to planners to senior decision makers, to productively access data from decision support systems is
contingent upon those systems’ facilitating connectivity to remote data
sources over local area networks and/or the Internet as seamlessly as one
12. Role of Computational Toolkits in Environmental Management
225
those provided for decision makers.
Of these four toolkit types or functions, the modeler’s toolkit has experienced the most development to date (see the Sidebar 12.1 for examples of
such development). The conceptual toolkit has the greatest development
left to conduct, but it most likely has the greatest potential payback associated with its use in environmental management.
General issues of toolkit design and functionality are presented in the
next section. More specific information for each toolkit is provided immediately thereafter. Note that these toolkits actually represent specific types
of functionality required by the user. As discussed in this chapter, such functionality could be supplied by four independent, but linked, toolkits or
through one master toolkit with differing levels of functionality.
12.2 General Issues of Toolkit Design and Functionality
Clearly, the potential users (and uses) determine the different purposes for
developing a toolkit. Modelers may want to use a toolkit to set up a model,
to calibrate and verify it, and to present model results. Stakeholders, alternatively, might wish to mine databases, to assess differing management
alternatives, and to conduct tradeoff analyses. As a result, the functional
requirements for a modeler’s toolkit could differ greatly from the requirements for the stakeholder’s or the decision maker’s toolkit. It is therefore
essential that any toolkit be developed with its ultimate audience in mind.
The more general building blocks of toolkit development are presented in
Figure 12.2, and each building block is discussed below.
12.2.1 Web Empowerment and Implementation
Among the general building blocks of any toolkit, none is perhaps more
important than that of being “Web empowered.” The use of the Internet
and the World Wide Web is a phenomenon of increasing commercial and
social significance. At present, it is common for managers, stakeholders, and
modelers to use digital elevation models, contaminant fate and effects data,
urban landscape data (e.g., locations of roads, population centers, and industrial complexes), land-cover and land-use data, and soil information that are
obtained from Internet sources. However, the data needed by these differing groups are seldom resident on a single Web site. The ability of different
decision makers, from local resource managers to planners to senior decision makers, to productively access data from decision support systems is
contingent upon those systems’ facilitating connectivity to remote data
sources over local area networks and/or the Internet as seamlessly as one
12. Role of Computational Toolkits in Environmental Management
225