POND - Aquaculture Decision Support Software

The software POND is a computer program that has been developed to guide decision-making processes relevant to warm water pond aquaculture. Such computer programs are called Decision Support Systems.

Pond Contd… Planners and managers involved with pond aquaculture often need to make decisions relating to the following factors: site locations, target fish species, stocking densities, and feeding, fertilization, liming and water exchange rates.

Pond contd.. The POND software was developed in order to provide educators, extension agents, pond managers and researchers with a tool for rapidly exploring the effects of various combinations of the above factors on pond performance and facility-level economics.

Pond contd… This functionality is accomplished primarily by the use of simulation models and an economic analysis package.

Pond - Capabilities Facility level or pond level analysis Multiple pond definitions Multiple fish lot definitions User definable model parameterisation and selection Multilevel simulation

Pond – Capabilities contd.. Graphical viewing of simulation results Parameter estimation for species customisation Fertilizer, feed, lime and water requirements determination Enterprise budget analysis, including user-definable costs

Pond – Capabilities contd.. Basic inputs to POND are provided through a series of 'mini-databases' related to particular aspects of the program. Databases containing default information have been created in POND to allow users to familiarize themselves with the program.

Pond – Capabilities contd.. Databases are provided for the following areas Source water, Ponds, Fish Lots, Fish Species, Site, Soil, Fertilizers, Feeds, Liming Materials, Weather, Cost, Simulation

System requirements POND is written in the C++ programming language and requires an IBM-compatible personal computer running the Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 operating environments. The program also needs about 1.5 MB of available hard disk space, a minimum of 4 MB RAM and the 80386 or greater CPU.

Copyright POND is copyrighted to Oregon State University and has been developed by the Biosystems Analysis Group (Department of Bioresource Engineering) with the assistance of the Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program (PD/A CRSP) which is funded in part by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).