Using Expert SystemsTo Check Building Applications

Abstract

After a short period of enthusiasm for the potentials of ESs, the myths and legends surrounding this technology clearly emerged, together with the difficulties connected to their building and maintenance. Really, in the field of planning, a prudent attitude seems to prevail also in the first overview contributions on the potentials of ESs. However, Development Control is commonly seen as a good application for ESs, as it is sufficiently defined, rule-based, and repetitive, furthermore the related decisions seem to be clearly founded on expert heuristics, especially during building-application inspection, when project admissibility is checked for compliance to the laws and planning regulations in force. The paper illustrates the work our research team has been carrying out on designing an Urban Information System called ‘SITU’, including an ES module dealing with buildingapplication inspection in local Town Planning Departments. The project aims to help the inspecting authorities and the designers by assisting them to overcome problems of shortages of skilled staff, and ensuring better compliance and savings in time and cost. 1 Problem description The local government is the responsible authority for granting building approvals. Applicants for building approvals are normally requested to submit their projects for the proposed building. At present, a long period of time passes from the building application to the permission grant, due to the fact that the Planning Departments in the south of Italy are 'chronically' understaffed. This circumstance, of course, has a negative impact on the attitudes of developers, owners and private citizens towards the local government. Furthermore, we lack planners with an adequate experience to handle numerous, complex, and often confusing, building and zoning regulations effectively and to get through the amount of building applications usually piling up on the department desks. Finally, we have to consider that: