Model - based Environmental Decision Support - Extended

Today, politics, economy, and science are challenged by severe environmental problems, many of which have global origins and/or global impact. If we want to intervene in order to achieve certain goals – avoidance of environmental damage, sustainable development of resources, preservation of species – we rely on knowledge about the respective systems and the various relevant phenomena they comprise, both scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge and experience. Good decisions require a deep understanding of the situation and the potential impact of human interventions. And they require solid reasoning about the available knowledge and information. If we aim at supporting this task with computer programs, we need to apply techniques of knowledge representation and reasoning. We need models, models in a general sense (not simply mathematical simulation models): a formal representation of concepts and interdependencies that allow explaining what we observe and predicting future developments and the impact of interventions. And we need powerful inference mechanisms that process these models. We need Artificial Intelligence solutions.