ILMAX is a web-based ecological knowledge management system. It manages experience knowledge resulting from an ecological long-term investigation of the regeneration process of the stream Ilm (Thuringia, Germany). The tools used are iZone, a web-based content management system with an emphasis on information retrieval and feedback.

Introduction

Ecological Informatics provides a wide range of methods to support ecological investigations between all levels of complexity of ecosystems and links data storage, retrieval and visualization with ecosystem analysis, synthesis and forecasting. Long-term investigations in ecology collect a large quantity of data, knowledge and experience. Most ecological cognition is stored only in informal ways such as text documents, data sheets or even as unpublished knowledge of a domain expert. Furthermore, larger studies are divided into subprojects and scientists usually only work for a few years in such a subproject. Managing experience knowledge can help to structure and retrieve ecological knowledge gathered over a long period by different scientists. The internet offers the capability to store and maintain information from different locations and it provides all the involved scientists with access to the content. The data storage, retrieval and visualization in an information system enables us to integrate data across ecosystem categories, reduce maintenance complexity and make the knowledge available in a such way that it can be used in further analysis. Our long-term aim is to use the structured knowledge to develop a qualitative reasoning simulation model of the investigated ecosystem.