Data model for a decision support in comprehensive nutrient management in the United States

Decision Support Systems (DSSs) have been developed to aid planners in achieving a ‘suitable plan’ from a complex decision space. AFOPro is one such DSS, developed in the present work, for comprehensive nutrient management in the United States. More specifically, AFOPro is a response to the need to track nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in commercial fertilizer and in the livestock manure generated by the Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), applied as nutrient source in agricultural fields in the United States. This system may be used by the planner to make allocation decisions optimum for an agricultural field to meet the crop needs, while minimizing the possible impacts on the watersheds. AFOPro consists of two essential modules – (1) AFOPro Core, the nutrient management decision module, (2) AFOPro Web, the web module for updating the knowledge base. AFOPro is flexible, transparent and interactive and supported 21 states of the United States as of February 2005. The number of users of this system has grown to more than 350 nationwide since its first release in May 2003.