Spatial decision support in aquaculture: the role of geographical information systems and remote sensing.

Geographical information systems (GIS) have developed rapidly, especially recently, in response to a burgeoning range of increasingly complex spatial management questions. Their adoption for decision support and planning in aquaculture has been slow but is now increasing, to the point where agencies are beginning to expect it to be used in project planning. GIS modelling can be used to great advantage both for management and research within the sector, and this chapter shows how GIS models and model collections are expert systems based around a virtual environment and illustrates the wide range of modelling that can be applied to aquaculture problems.