A Web-based System to Support e-Collaboration in the Design and Construction of Environmental Models

Abstract

Design and construction of environmental models are usually complex tasks that can be considerably improved with collaboration among design teams. Knowledge Management can also play an important role in these tasks, facilitating knowledge acquisition, dissemination and reuse. This paper presents a Web-based system to support e-collaboration in the design and construction of environmental models. The system is centered in Knowledge Management issues and also makes use of ontologies to increase the modeller’s abilities to obtain, share and reuse knowledge about models in order to improve the design of environmental models. These tools are also valuable in model validation and reuse.