Aim

The aim of this special session is to provide a forum for recent research in the application of computational intelligence in the areas of ecological informatics, ecological modelling and environmental modelling.
Ecological informatics and the related field of ecological modelling involve constructing computational models of ecological systems. These models include such things as the distribution or abundance of particular species, models of the interaction between multiple species, and models of the future development of populations. Environmental modelling is closely related and involves constructing models of the physical environment that biological eco-systems inhabit. These models cover such topics as the climate and climate change and the detection of landscape features from geographical data. Models have also been constructed of such environmental topics as waste management systems, water quality and drainage systems and air pollution. As these are highly-complex systems, algorithms from the field of computational intelligence have already been widely applied to modelling this data. Previous work has successfully applied artificial neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary algorithms, support vector machines and combinations of these including neuro-fuzzy and neuro-evolutionary approaches. In each case, computational intelligence methods were shown to be more effective at solving the problem than the alternative methods.

Scope

Topics relevant to this special session include, but are not limited to, the following applications of computational intelligence, including Artificial Neural Networks, Fuzzy Systems, and Evolutionary Algorithms:
• Species distribution and ecological niche modelling
• Predicting species abundance
• Remote sensing image analysis and content-based image retrieval for Ecological Informatics and Environmental Modelling
• Analysis of species assemblages
• Issues in the preparation of ecological data for modelling
• Modelling of pollutants in air, land or water
• Modelling water quality
• Predicting the effects of climate change
• Predicting crop hazards, pests or diseases
• Identifying landscape features
• Modelling ecosystem biomass

Deadline

The deadline for submissions to this special session is 20 December 2013

Information for Authors

1) Information on the format and templates for papers can be found here:
http://www.ieee-wcci2014.org/Paper%20Submission.htm
2) Papers should be submitted via the IJCNN 2014 paper submission site:
http://ieee-cis.org/conferences/ijcnn2014/upload.php
3) Select the Special Session name in the Main Research topic dropdown list
4) Fill out the input fields, upload the PDF file of your paper and finalize your submission by the deadline of December 20, 2013