An expert system for planning landfill restoration

Abstract

The application of expert systems technology in the domain of environmental management is particularly appropriate in order to preserve and disseminate efficiently valuable and scarce expertise at reasonable costs. The Landfill Restoration Plan Advisor (LRPA) is an expert system designed for use in the planning of sanitary landfill restoration. This paper describes the LRPA and the methodology and techniques that were employed for its development. A unique feature of this experience was that knowledge was acquired from multiple expertise sources in various forms. Expertise acquired from text analysis of textbooks and manuals was used in developing the core knowledge base for the expert system; while those acquired from text analysis of research publications and interviews with selected domain experts was used in the subsequent refinement and expansion of the basic prototype. The building process for the LRPA prototype adopted a modular approach using the incremental rapid prototyping methodology.