Department of Fisheries Decision Support System - Report Example

?Department of fisheries Decision Support System (DSS) Number Introduction The data and information concerning fisheries in the department is very essential for a country to exploit and manage fish products sustainably. In every country, there is a body which is responsible for collecting and packaging the information. To come up with updated information pertaining the distribution, type and catch of fish is a very wanting task that needs some technology to incorporate. The best technology that can be used to provide an effective decision support system to the personnel in charge is data warehousing. Monitoring the changes in the way the activities related to fishing is very essential for a country to fully explore the resource. In most countries the organizations that are given the responsibility to handle and overlook on the fisheries activities faces difficulties in managing the information concerning the subject. Information about different features of fishing is handled in different section in the department (Anand, & Singh, 2006). To ensure that the storage of this information is fully integrated. The department needs a system that will integrate the different systems that are used in different section to handle this information. As such the most appropriate system that can ensure that the detailed data concerning fisheries can be stored effectively and accurately is data warehousing system. The idea of data warehousing is derived from database management as a tool for knowledge management. Data warehouse is a database which stores the organization information that is gathered from different sources. The storage of such information is centralized. The information concerning different sections of a department is merged and stored in a standard format on a database. Technology used To build an effective data warehousing system, there is need for a data mart. The best software that can be used to develop this is Microsoft SQL server 2008. The development, extraction, transformation and loading database tools are done using SSIS. The end user interface is an analytic add-in fitted Microsoft excels. From the research, this system can serve as a total decision support system since all the data concerning fisheries is stored in a central place. The information that will be stored in this data warehouse will provide the department with evidence-based centralized data that can be retrieved and used to produce a report. The errors that accrue due to data not being consistence are eliminated. In addition, the long process of processing this data to come up with a reconciled report is also eliminated. More so, the report that is produced from analyzing this data is of high quality. The process of getting the data from the system is also simplified (Trevor, 2010). In a decision support process that uses data from data warehousing system, the people concern can come up with queries and report that originate from themselves. The capability of the system to display the information in a manner that the user can recognize and make use of it with a lot of simplicity is something that cannot be undermined. In general, the process of retrieving the data from the system is shortened and at the same time it is user friendly. Another advantage with data warehousing is the fact that the data that is found in the system is clean and can be trusted. This means that the confidentiality, accuracy and integrity of such data are guaranteed. In addition, the ability of Microsoft SQL servers to store a massive volume of data makes it possible for trend analysis. Scope of the problem The department has the responsibility of coming up with detailed report of the findings they get after completing a field trip. In addition, they are also supposed to give a report after three months and at the end of the year. This report entails all the tasks that are carried out I a particular period and also there is the policy information that goes to the stakeholders. The information system that the department uses currently is not integrated enough to gather for the vast need of information by the both the stakeholders and the users. As such an integrated database system is needed to gather for all the needs for the department (Janakiraman, 2007). The primary objectives of this decision support system are to integrated and central storage of the information of the fisheries department and at the same time provide easy retrieval. Conceptually, the areas that are covered as far as decision support system is concerned include design and development data mining system and implementation. Basically the concept of data warehousing entails gathering the data of a specific subject. This data is changes with time and its storage is also permanent. The information of different sections are analyzed and stored in a where each analysis that is done is based on this data. The organization of this data is based on the different subjects for example the data concerning the fish can be grouped in terms of species, the place where they are found of the type of the nets that the fishermen uses in a particular field for a specific kind of fish. The system is integrated in that the different features of the data like format, labeling, metric of measuring and the constraints are consistent (Emmert, 2009). . System design model The basic structure of data warehouse system is relational and multi-dimensional. The data is stored in form of in multidimensional arrays schemas that are in form of cubes. For the structure that assumes the relational model, it takes a database that is relational. The modeling of the data is in form of cube like multidimensional with properties and metrics. One unique feature of data warehouse is its well structured format with components such as current data, previous data in-depth summary, overview data and meta-data.the undertakings that took place recently is termed as current data that are kept in the disk are used by the end users to do the analysis. Meta data is the syntax and semantics of the data described in higher level language (Sauter,2010). Details of total operational costs To come up with a data warehouse that will effectively support the department, the staff in charge of budget are supposed to take part in the implementation process so that they can optimize the designing of the project. The team will be able to provide a unique schema that wills business centered. The budget allocation will be represented in different dimension that is time variant. This will enable the necessary adjustment as the project is advancing. It also enables the project team to visualizing the budget allocation information and some implication of other projects that are supposed to be carried out in the department Source: Kersten, & Mikolajuk, (2007) The knowledge about all the undertaking in the department is collected. There source of the information that the department handle is diverse. This means that there should be a vast scrutiny of the information and data that is contained in archives such as the books and journals. It includes capturing the knowledge on the subject from expert that has invested in the field. After collecting all the data and information, a codification process is done. This is where the information is refined into standardized form (Holsapple, 2008). Codification process will give information that is reliable and of high quality. This information can be accessed very first since the information is in a system that is implemented by using the codified knowledge again. The whole idea surrounding codification is combination of the fisheries information and data that is in a database, the reports that were produced previously and presented. The attribute of all this information is not known since it is hidden. As such the sue of data warehouse is very important since the tables that they are contained in the data warehouse database gives options of viewing all the attributes of an object. The knowledge that has been coded is kept in safe modes as storing in the web-server. Source: Holsapple, (2008). Testing and deployment of the gathered and coded knowledge is very essential phase because this is where testing of the knowledge system is done real time to ensure that the requirement of the user is achieved. The knowledge that has been processed is meant to be shared by different people in different department including the affiliate agencies. This is the essence of sharing the knowledge. The parties that get this knowledge involves those that can transfer it to other parties or those that can use to create innovation for example coming up with a data warehousing system that will simplify the work of the department. Source : Emmert, (2009) There many countries that have implemented this type of system in the departments that deals with fisheries. One of it is the European Union that has put in place a system called COASTBASE (netcoast, 2006). This is a data warehousing system that is virtual in terms of storage. This is to mean that the storage of their data is based in web servers and the end users access it through cloud computing. The services that are provided by this system include all the marine and coastal information and the same information is in different languages. In addition this information can be accessed from any part of the world since the system is web-based. The objective of that system was to better coastal and aquatic research, evaluation, making policy and integration of different cultures. Another project that used the same concept is that used by CRM. This is a marine research company that is based in Australia. The system is coded in java programming language and it uses Oracle database. The similarity between this project and the one I have proposed is the fact that unlike the European system, it is in a client/server setup that implemented RMI and JDBC to link to the ORACLE database The diagram of how the data warehousing system works. Source: Trevor, (2010) The functioning of a data warehouse system basically throws its nature from the daily process of that is carried out in the department of fisheries. The diagram below shows how the conceptual architecture of the system is created. In the department, there different categories of data marts for example there is the data mart that originates from with the different organizational units. Such data are always independent and therefore it is not always consistent therefore assume distingue measurements and dimensions (Janakiraman, 2007). To come up with such model of data, one departmental requirement are formulated and analyzed for example the details of the information concerning the sale of fish like processing of orders, customers who are frequently served and the bills. This represents single mart which gives foundation for the creation of other marts using its dimensions. Such information in the system is represented in the form that is shown below Source: Anand, & Singh, (2006) How data is loaded into the system. The subsystem that is meant to upload the fisheries data into the system initially transfer to an editor that eliminate data redundancy that are in rows. The edited data is forwarded bit by bit to an adapter that will generate the data table in the database. During the process there is a comparison between the new data and the data that exist in the warehouse to avoid unnecessary data redundancy. If the specific identifier of the input rows do not resemble any that exist in one of the table in the database, and there is no change that has been implemented on the column, the row is rejected. If the identifier has a replica in the table but there is no change that has been affected, the row is saved in the command adapter for the database. This adapter will alter and make updates on the respective row in threw table. If the data that is brought in do not have a match in the destination table, then a new data table is created and the data is kept. The decision support system will have a simple and easy to use user interface. This will enables the users to achieve their goals with a lot of ease. More so, the system will have a support whether the user can ask any question concerning the functional features of the system. The mode at which the end user will access the system is via Microsoft spreadsheet. This is because many novice users have used spreadsheet for quite some time and therefore have no difficulties in using it. In addition, there additional features that will enable the users to analyze the data effectively (Sol, 2009). References Anand, A. & Singh, A. (2006). Decision Support System. Rajat Publications. Trevor, L. (2010). Decision Support System: Guidance for Policy Makers. Environment Unit, Kirklees Metropolitan Council. Emmert, B. (2009). Expert Systems, Decision Support Systems and Computer-Assisted Instruction for Water Resource Management. DIANE Publishing. Holsapple, C. (2008). Handbook on Decision Support Systems. Springer. Janakiraman, v. (2007). Decision Support Systems. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Kersten, G., & Mikolajuk, Z. (2007). Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Development. Springer. Power, D. (2008). Decision Support Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers. Greenwood Publishing Group. Ravindranath, B. (2007). Decision Support Systems And Data Warehouses. New Age International. Sauter, V. (2010). Decision Support Systems for Business Intelligence. John Wiley & Sons. Sol, H. (2009). Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence in Decision Support Systems. Springer. Read More