Development of a crop knowledge base for Europe

This paper describes the development of a Crop Knowledge Base System for use in crop modelling and yield forecasting. The inherent limitations of databases can cause problems for dealing effectively with geo-referenced data sets. The system described here includes all the normal database operations but also handles richer types of data. Values of queried attributes can be deduced through the use of heritability within hierarchies and by the application of rules that summarise sets of empirical observations. The system is able to reason about similar locations, so that where no information exists in the knowledge base for a particular location, then an alternative location, subject to similar meteorological and agricultural conditions, will be sought. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.