Multi-agent Systems (MAS) are one of the most exciting research areas in Artificial Intelligence meanwhile Environmental Studies is a research area of strategic interest. Both areas can provide society with solutions for many real applications, in order to use and protect the environment. Human activities imply intervention into nature, but properly managed, these interventions can not be only ecologically sound but also favourable to the sustainable development of civilisation. The encounter between these fields is a new challenge for many researchers of both communities.

This book presents a comprehensive reference of state-of-the-art efforts. Specifically, it presents current and future ways in which adaptive information technologies, techniques, protocols and architectures, such as software agent technologies and multi-agent systems, can be used to support the development of real-world agent-based systems in the area of e-Environment.

Inhalt
Preamble.- Agents as a Decision Support Tool in Environmental Processes: The State of the Art.- Deliberation about the Safety of Industrial Wastewater Discharges into Wastewater Treatment Plants.- Designing an Information System for the Preservation of the Insular Tropical Environment of Reunion Island.- OSM: A Multi-Agent System for Modeling and Monitoring the Evolution of Oil Slicks in Open Oceans.- A Methodology for Developing Environmental Information Systems with Software Agents.- Cognitive Agents as a Design Metaphor in Environmental-Knowledge Management.