Network expert geographic information system for landfill siting

Abstract

A prototypical network expert geographic information system (GIS) is developed to facilitate municipal solid waste landfill siting. A forward chaining knowledge base consisting of related siting rules extracted from various literature is used to establish an expert system. Siting analysis is performed by a GIS and evaluated by rules triggered from the expert system. The expert system and GIS are integrated into an expert GIS to combine the advantages of both systems. Also, a multimedia network interface is designed for local or remote access to the system from anywhere on the Internet. With the interface, a general user does not require previous knowledge of the expert system and GIS to use the system. This networking capability not only significantly reduces the cost of distributing tools to each user, but also avoids the difficulty that each user may encounter in installing and managing tools on the computer. Finally, a case study is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed system in facilitating landfill-siting analysis. The system can be directly accessed via Internet from the home page http://ev004.ev.nctu.edu.tw/ENGLISH/wsite/index.html.