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Using the Zope Web application framework to build and manage a large encyclopedia of scientific knowledge
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Jordin, J. Bryan Hubbard, William G. Kennard, Deborah Milnor, William Rauscher, Michael Veal, Bryan |
| Copyright Year | 2003 |
| Abstract | Many social and economic institutions in the Southern Appalachians depend on the various benefits provided by its forests, such as abundant, high-quality timber; plentiful and diverse fish and wildlife; extensive recreational opportunities; and, a variety of nontimber forest products. These benefits take on added value because of their proximity to human population centres and the strong social and cultural heritage of rural and indigenous populations. This region is experiencing increasing pressure to provide this wide diversity of resource values to millions of people. These socio-economic concerns have driven substantial research efforts in the southern Appalachians. As a result, an overwhelming body of information exists covering many aspects of forest ecosystems in these mountainous areas. For example, the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, established in 1934, has been a centre of forestry research in the region-nearly 900 publications from that site alone had been produced by 1994 (Stickney et al. 1994). Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station’s Bent Creek Experimental Forest, established in 1927, have produced 287 publications. In 1993, Nodvin et al. published a list of some 2500 publications associated with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) generated nearly 3 gigabytes of information about the status of resources in the southern Appalachians (SAMAB 1996). Despite the accumulation of this large body of research knowledge, a gap exists between what scientists know and what the management community is able to apply on the ground. Most research knowledge is neither easily accessible nor readily useable because it has not been synthesized and integrated into a coherent, meaningful knowledge structure. In most cases, this knowledge base retains the fragmented nature of the many separate publications that compose it. What should emerge as an integrated and coherent body of knowledge appears instead to managers as disconnected pieces of the “whole” that they need for applied problem solving. In such a situation, knowledge gaps are not easily identified, important knowledge developed a decade or more in the past is unknown, and the interesting, but relatively unimportant, research problems cannot be distinguished from those that are both interesting and critically important. Because land managers deal with forest resources in aggregate, they need knowledge that captures the integrative nature of ecosystems and management. Moreover, as natural resource management moves from a multiple-resource management paradigm to an even more challenging ecosystem management paradigm, the need for powerful knowledge management aids becomes urgent. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/pubs/ja/ja_jordin001.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/ja_jordin001.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/ja_jordin001.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
