ABSTRACT
Environmental computing is a very broad topic, and to some extent defies taxonomy. However, in the interest of providing an overview of this field, environmental information systems can be described generally as either environmental management information systems (EMIS) or environmental decision support systems (EDSS). The former will be defined as systems which provide access to information, such as records and reports, while the latter include systems which provide access to tools with which to operate on information in order to arrive at an environmental management decision. There is clearly a great deal of overlap between these two definitions, and many systems might straddle the definition uncomfortably. Nonetheless, it will be useful to address this broad topic in the context of this dichotomy.
