DESTA: a software tool for selecting sites for new aquaculture facilities

A conceptual framework for rating soil and water information for aquaculture was developed by Hajek and Boyd (Hajek, B.F. and Boyd, C.E., 1994). Rating soil and water information for aquaculture, Aquacult. Eng. 13, 115-128). Using this framework a software tool was developed to facilitate aquaculture management decisions regarding site selection and design for new aquaculture facilities. The information required to make an assessment is entered into the computer program through a series of interactive dialogue screens. The computer program then processes the information and produces limitation ratings for each environmental parameter supplied by the user. The output from the software is a tabular summary of user responses classed into slight, moderate and severe limitation ratings. If sufficient information has been supplied by the user, then the software program provides an assessment of the potential of the new site for aquaculture. The software program is a valuable decision support tool for assisting anyone engaged in the selection and development of sites for aquaculture.