Environmental Information Systems as Appropriate Technology

Environmental Information Systems is the umbrella term for those systems used for:Monitoring,Data storage and access,Disaster description and response,Environmental Impact Reporting,State of the Environment Reporting,Planning.

Right from its inception, this ENVIS centre is playing an important role in exchange of information and providing relevant information both in

anticipation and on demand to both internal and external users. The objectives of lnformation Systems on Environmentally Sound and Appropriate Technologies are listed below:

(a) Designing and organising user oriented and automated lnformation system;

(b) Retrieving relevant data and information in user friendly way;

(c) Providing data and information support to research and action aimed at sustainable national development;

(d) Disseminating information globally through networking;

(e) Sharing the resources; and

(f) Evolving better methodologies and techniques for retriwal of relevant

information to the users, efficiently.

How many different kinds of Information System are there?

An information system is a collection of hardware, software, data, people and procedures that are designed to generate information that supports the day-to-day, short-range, and long-range activities of users in an organization. Information systems generally are classified into five categories:

1.Office Information Systems. OIS is an information system that uses hardware, software and networks to enhance work flow and facilitate communications among employees. With an OIS, for example, a registration department might post the class schedule on the Internet and e-mail students

2. Transaction Processing Systems. A transaction processing system (TPS) is an information system that captures and processes data generated during an organization. TPS computerized an existing manual system to allow for faster processing, reduced clerical costs and improved customer service.

3. Management Information Systems. MIS is an information system that generates accurate, timely and organized information so managers and other users can make decisions, solve problems, supervise activities, and track progress.An MIS generates three basic types of information: detailed, summary and exception.

4. Decision Support Systems. DSS is an information system designed to help users reach a decision when a decision-making situation arises. A decision support system uses data from internal and/or external sources. Internal sources of data might include sales, manufacturing, inventory. Data from external sources could include interest rates, population trends..

5. Expert Systems.Expert systems are composed of two main components: 1) A knowledge base is the combined subject knowledge and experiences of the human experts. 2)The inference rules are a set of logical judgments applied to the knowledge base each time a user describes a situation to the expert system.