Computer-based methods in environmental data organization and management

Abstract

The protection of the environment is one of the main problems that mankind faces today. Recent advances in computer technology have assisted environmental studies towards this direction, in various scientific approaches. In this study, an attempt was undertaken on the integration of various environmental data (mainly agricultural) into databases with database management facilities and data analysis methods, using an interactive information system created for this purpose and called AgroModel. The aim was to provide a proper educational and friendly environment for efficient environmental data integration and manipulation in order to be used for educational and research purposes. Arising out of a need for a better organization and exploitation of environmental knowledge, an integrated interactive environment for environmental (plant & animal) education and research purposes was developed and used efficiently in local area research cases. The environment provides built-in tools as well as interfaces to software packages for mathematical and statistical analysis. Being in such an integrated environment, the researcher could undertake any type of statistical analysis from the simplest descriptive statistics to the most sophisticated statistical approaches.