1. POND - Aquaculture Decision Support Software

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

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

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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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 or greater CPU.

11. 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).