How Is The Knowledge In This Encyclopedia Organized?

Unlike traditional encyclopedias, this web site is not organized alphabetically (A-Z). Instead, this encyclopedia is designed to represent the knowledge structure of a large body of research. To view the structure of one of the encyclopedias, see the Table of Contents for each encyclopedia.  The Table of Contents is one of the Indexes available from the Index button at the very top of each page.

Authoring a hypertext encyclopedia system is much like authoring a book.  Out of the infinity of ways to organize the content material, authors must choose a single, logically coherent structure.  This structure becomes one possible knowledge-map of an encyclopedia.  Other authors might choose a different structure to map the same knowledge-space.  The important point is that whatever structure the authors have chosen must be easy to understand by the users.  We have given you an opportunity to provide us with your comments on this very issue to help us achieve a high degree of structural clarity by using the Feedback button at the very top of each page.

We have divided the subject of the Southern Appalachian Forest Ecosystems into 5 top level categories:

• The Landscape: contains a biological, geological, climatological, hydrological and soils description of the southern Appalachian landscape
• Resource Management: management of the many resources provided by the southern Appalachian region
• Ecology: ecological foundations to understand the management of resources
• Forest Health Management: insect, disease, non-native invasive species, and air quality threats to forests of the region
• Social Science: social science related material such as economics, recreation, native american history, etc.

Similarly, we have divided the Encyclopedia of Southern Fire Science into 7 top level categories:

Fire Behavior provides basic information about fuels, weather, and fire models

Fire Effects describes effects of fire on air, soil, vegetation, water, and wildlife

Fire Ecology discusses the role of fire in 33 southern ecological communities in the Southern Appalachians, Piedmont, and Coastal Plains

Fire & People contains entries about the history of burning in the South, human health and fire, the economics of fire, and fires in the wildland-urban interface

Prescribed Fire describes the uses of prescribed fire, planning protocol, and burning techniques

Smoke Management discusses models of smoke movement, avoiding and reducing smoke, components of smoke, smoke and air quality, and air quality regulations

Wildfire includes statistics of southern wildfires, methods of prevention, detection, and mitigation, control and suppression, and restoration and rehabilitation

The other encyclopedias in the Forest Encyclopedia Network are still developing and a final structural outline for these is not yet available.