Title: A DSS for the identification of forest land types by the Greek Forest Service

Authors: Antonios Athanasiadis; Zacharoula Andreopoulou

Addresses: Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Box 247, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece ' Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Box 247, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: The issue of land use and identification of land types is of great interest for the Greek Forest Service in order to avoid legal conflicts between the State and private landowners. The main decision problem is the interpretation of the law and the required objectivity during the process. This paper present a hypertext-oriented decision support system, based on hyperlinks and questionnaires, for the identification of forest land types. The interface was designed based on HTML programming language using the software Dreamweaver™ as several Java scripts were also employed to set the rules and treaties that hyperlinks must fulfil. Its purpose is to propose a methodology to achieve more objective and reliable decisions. Forest services and foresters-decision makers could use such a decision tool aiming at sustainable management in land use, as it can also assist in achieving an efficient administration which is a prerequisite for sustainable governance.

Keywords: land use; land types; forestry services; hypertext-based DSS; forest management; sustainable governance; sustainability; sustainable development; decision support systems; Greek Forest Service; Greece; sustainable management; land management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSAMI.2015.069053

International Journal of Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, 2015 Vol.1 No.1, pp.76 - 88

Received: 09 Jun 2014
Accepted: 20 Sep 2014
Published online: 25 Apr 2015 *

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