Expert System Based Risk Assessment for Ground Water Protection

摘要

Ground water is affected by virtually every action of society, from agriculture to residential activities. Even though contamination prevention is a complex task, it is less difficult and expensive, and generally requires less time, than cleanup of contaminated aquifers. Thus, prevention is the key to maintaining the integrity of the nation's ground water. A comprehensive prevention program involves several tasks (aquifer vulnerability assessment, hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management, and management option selection) each of which is usually assigned to an expert. Rural communities--where much of the ground water contamination occurs--are typically unable to access or afford experts. The study formulates an expert system based risk assessment, suitable for small communities to use to evaluate and manage their ground water contamination problems. An expert system is useful in solving complex problems usually reserved for experts. Because of the extensive time involved in the development of a viable expert system, the scope of the study is limited to the design of a prototype system. The proposed methodology is designed to be comprehensive in nature, incorporating all of the recommended tasks, but simplistic enough for a 'layman' to use.