SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
To address the environmental pollution problems associated with livestock production, local governments have passed new ordinances controlling the location of concentrated production systems, while the federal government has passed a number of environmental regulations. In addition, law suits seeking to reduce odor nuisances from livestock production are emerging. The general public is becoming more conscious of the impact livestock production can have on the quality of air, soil, and water. Livestock producers are under tremendous pressure to ensure that all forms of pollution from their production practices are controlled, or even eliminated. However, these pollution problems can only be minimized if resource managers, farm planners, and decision makers are equipped with decision support systems for planning environmentally sound production systems.
In this article a SDSS, developed by coupling ARC/INFO GIS, spatial and biophysical modeling, and knowledge-based system was described. The SDSS is uniquely structured to facilitate the planning and management of livestock production systems, and includes components for: (1) delineating suitable land areas for siting livestock production systems, given site-specific landscape characteristics, (2) determining suitable land areas for manure application, and (3) assessing the potential impact of manure application on groundwater quality. An example application to the Lake Icaria watershed showed the SDSS to hold great promise as an interactive and flexible tool for addressing some of the environmental problems associated with livestock production. Overall system also provides an integrated framework and user-friendly modeling environment for evaluating and comparing the attractiveness of several livestock production strategies. Finally, the evaluation of nitrate leaching potential, using the SDSS, provides decision makers with yet another useful tool for environmentally sound livestock production planning.