This conference is supported by the EU through the PAEQANN project (5th Framework Programme, contract EVK1-CT1999-00026)

Objectives

Both the design and management of ecological databases and their exploration by machine learning computation for ecosystem analysis, synthesis and prediction appear as features of the newly emerging discipline: Ecological Informatics.

The conference will provide a forum for the promotion and discussion of recent research and future developments in Ecological Informatics. It will focus on the design and application of biologically inspired computational techniques for ecological analysis, synthesis and forecasting.

The aim of the conference is to encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary communication and research amongst professionals in computer science, machine learning computation, ecosystem research and management.

Some of the themes on which the conference will focus in specialised sessions are:

• nonlinear regression, ordination and visualization of ecological data by artificial neural networks;

• ecological time series analysis and prediction by artificial neural networks;

• discovery of predictive rules and equations for ecosystem processes by evolutionary algorithms;

• ecological data mining by machine learning computation;

• discovery and forecasting of emergent ecosystem structures and behaviours by adaptive agents;

• ecological applications of pattern recognition and classification of microscopic, macroscopic and remotely sensed images by machine learning computation;

• ecological perspective of fuzzy logic, cellular automata and artificial life;

• expert systems and decision support systems in environmental management.

A special session will focus on applications to freshwater ecology. This session will be organised in the framework of an EU 5th Framework project that deals with this kind of applications [PAEQANN - Predicting Aquatic Ecosystem Quality using Artificial Neural Networks: impact of environmental characteristics on the structure of aquatic communities (algae, benthic and fish fauna)].