Developing environmental model bases

Abstract

Though a systematic method for the design of model bases is not yet available, the paper revises a number of recent experiences. They show that database techniques must be integrated with expert systems and hypermedia to support model selection and application by inexperienced users efficiently and correctly. In particular, it appears that a database approach is preferred when dealing with a very large and heterogeneous set of models, while rule base systems better support model selection in a restricted knowledge domain and hypermedia can be the best tool to supply experience on model use. In most cases also object-oriented techniques are very useful.