The Promise, Practice, and State of Planning Tools to Assess Site Vulnerability to Runoff Phosphorus Loss

Publication history: Accepted - 23 October 2017; Published online - 1 November 2017.Over the past 20 yr, there has been a proliferation of phosphorus (P) site assessment tools for nutrient management planning, particularly in the United States. The 19 papers that make up this special section on P site assessment include decision support tools ranging from the P Index to fate-and-transport models to weather-forecast-based risk calculators. All require objective evaluation to ensure that they are effective in achieving intended benefits to protecting water quality. In the United States, efforts have been underway to compare, evaluate, and advance an array of P site assessment tools. Efforts to corroborate their performance using water quality monitoring data confirms previously documented discrepancies between different P site assessment tools but also highlights a surprisingly strong performance of many versions of the P Index as a predictor of water quality. At the same time, fate-and-transport models, often considered to be superior in their prediction of hydrology and water quality due to their complexity, reveal limitations when applied to site assessment. Indeed, one consistent theme from recent experience is the need to calibrate highly parameterized models. As P site assessment evolves, so too do routines representing important aspects of P cycling and transport. New classes of P site assessment tools are an opportunity to move P site assessment from general, strategic goals to web-based tools supporting daily, operational decision

Intelligent and interactive web-based tutoring system in engineering education : reviews, perspectives and development

Due to the rapid growth of the use of computers and increasing use of the Internet in education a large number of Web-based educational applications have been developed and implemented. However, very few of them are pedagogically intelligent and interactive for learning purposes. The Web-based intelligent learning has become more effective in the past decade due to increasing use of the Internet ineducation. A literature search indicates that there is a lack of relevant comprehensive research concerning the efficiency of computer-assisted instructions used in engineering education. The main focus of the research described in this chapter is on the comprehensive review of design and development of the Web-based authoring tool for an Intelligent Tutoring System in engineering education. The chapter outlines and discusses important issues of the development of intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) in engineering education with an example of the development of a Web-Based Computer-Assisted Tutorials and Laboratory Procedures (WCALP)