Ecosystem services in environmental sustainability: a formalized approach using UML

Ecological systems generate diverse services that are vital for human well-being and socioeconomic development. Ecosystem services are a key notion for the idea of sustainable environmental development. A practical utilization of this concept of sustainability requires a mechanism whereby all the goods and services generated by ecosystems are adequately quantified, valuated and incorporated in the decision-making process. Each of these tasks is substantially non-trivial. To deal with the named complexity, an adequate theoretical framework and a sophisticated information system have to be in place for the use by stakeholders of environmental sustainability. A theoretical framework for environmental sustainable management and its further extension on the basis of a meta-modeling approach have been suggested in our prior publications. As the next step, we need to build an information system implementing the main elements of the framework in corresponding software components. In this paper, we are suggesting a formalized approach to the entire process of sustainable environmental management on the basis of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). UML is a standardized graphical language being used in object-oriented software engineering for specifying, documenting and visual modeling of an IT project's artifacts or components within a wide range of applications. With the three groups of graphical models (i.e., functional, object and dynamic), UML is aimed to provide a standard notation and describe different aspects of a software project. We demonstrate the ways, in which UML can be applied in the information systems development for the needs of environmental management and protection. The constituting software blocks of an environmental information system implementing the framework are presented by the following UML graphical models: overall system architecture is depicted as a UML package diagram; contents of the Ecosystem package are shown as a UML use-case diagram; activities of the Monitoring package are shown in the notation of a UML use-case diagram the Modeling package is presented as a UML component diagram; internal steps within the Modeling natural dynamics module are shown as a UML use-case diagram; logic of the Modeling anthropogenic dynamics module is demonstrated as a UML use-case diagram; internal steps of the Valuation package are shown as a UML use-case diagram; and flow of operations within the Management package is presented as a UML activity diagram. For many years, UML has been successfully utilized in the systems development life cycles of business-type IT projects. It is supported by multiple commercial and free CASE-tools, including those featuring reverse-and round-trip engineering. At the same time, despite obvious advantages, applications of UML in the design of environmental information systems remain rather limited. While UML has not been widely adopted and used in environmental modeling and software design, it is reasonable to expect growing interest towards UML in the field as a tool to combine the power of visual and simulation modeling and to facilitate automated construction and synthesis of environmental information systems. The paper is also intended to inspire and shape the discussion within the session on "Models, Methods, Techniques and Tools in Quantifying Ecosystem Services and Environmental Sustainability".