Development of a web-based application for agroforestry planning and tree selection

Agroforestry is currently being promoted in the Southeast United States as a land use strategy that can provide additional products and income as well as environmental and conservation benefits. For effective agroforestry planning, landowners and extension agents require information on potential tree and shrub components as well as geographic information for specific sites. The Southeastern Agroforestry Decision Support System (SEADSS) is a web-based application being developed to assist landowners and extension agents in the Southeast United States evaluate potential sites and suitable tree and shrub species for agroforestry planning. SEADSS offers on-line access to county-level spatial information, such as topography, hydrology, soils and land use, which are essential in evaluating potential agroforestry sites and suitable species. SEADSS links a geographical information system component with a subtropical tree/shrub database, which enables the user to query for biophysically suitable and economically and managerially desirable trees and shrubs. Species selection is achieved through Structured Query Language queries that are called and executed using Active Server Pages. When the end user selects a county and location of interest, climate and soil parameters are passed to the database and queries select the trees and shrubs that satisfy the biophysical parameters. Furthermore, the user can narrow the search for appropriate species by selecting particular management, propagation, product and services criteria within the web-based application. Tree and shrub species results are hyperlinked allowing the client to view additional species-specific information including access to documents and photographs. The SEADSS prototype was initially tested by Alachua County, Florida extension agents and will undergo a thorough testing and evaluation phase with a group of Northwest and Central Florida extension agents and landowners. Based on recommendations from targeted end users, SEADSS will be updated and expanded to provide an efficient agroforestry extension and planning tool.