| Been checking it out and this program is waaay too mathematically intensive for my brain to wrap around, but seems pretty impressive nonetheless. Here is what the program does according to the author:
POND is a computer program that has been developed to guide decision making processes relevant to warmwater pond aquaculture. Such computer programs are called Decision Support Systems. POND was written to provide educators, extension agents, managers, planners and researchers with a tool for rapidly analyzing aquaculture systems under different management regimes, and to assist in the development of optimal management strategies.
POND Version 3.0 focuses on providing a detailed view of pond aquaculture at both the individual pond as well as at the facility-level. Pond analysis is accomplished primarily by the use of simulation models combined with an economics package that can be used to generate enterprise budgets for a pond facility. The models are organized hierarchically and proceed from simple ones where fish growth, pond volume, and water temperature are the only state variables, to more complex ones which describe phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacterial and water quality/sediment dynamics in addition to fish growth, pond volume, and water temperature.
The program can be used to set up pond facilities with different configurations and/or management strategies. Mini-databases are maintained for site, pond, associated fish lots (populations) comprising one or more species, source water, soil, weather and cost characteristics. These databases can be used to describe a 'physical' aquaculture facility. Users can also define characteristics of feeds, fertilizers and liming materials.
Once a desired facility has been set up, multiple simulations can be conducted to examine the effects of various pond management scenarios on fish yields and facility-level economics. Pond management scenarios supported include the ability to vary stocking densities and/or species combinations, specify stocking and harvest dates of individual lots, and either specify or allow the model to generate feeding and fertilization schedules, and water balance/flow descriptions through pond facilities. These scenarios can be simulated by the use of either the simple or more complex models. Simple models are expected to be useful for planning/management purposes, and more complex models for short-term management and research applications. A graphics module is available for viewing the results of simulation runs.
Once a simulation is completed, the economics package can be used to generate enterprise budgets on either a per unit area, per unit cost of production or overall facility basis. The budget accounts for fixed, variable, and depreciable costs in addition to income streams that are either user-specified or generated by the model (e.g., fish yields).
Additional features of POND include the ability to customize the software to specific sites and species by the use of a parameter estimation package that compares multiple simulation runs to user-provided fish growth data sets, and arrives at 'best-fit' parameters for the models.
Nope, nothing about filtration in this program--it's for managing natural-type biosystems, right down to the biota.
I've been scouring the net for as much information on contructing and managing farm mud ponds as I can dig up, but there really isn't much that is comprehensive enough to help me in the planning stages. My crew is standing by waiting for the word to dig now that we've had our first rain, but I'm afraid to start without educating myself further about pond dynamics so the massive holes we dig (5 acres, 2 acre reservoir planned to feed up to 7 adjacent ponds) are prepared without extreme ignorance.
I'd like to get my beginning started the right way...
Marie
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