Q2X: AN (EXPERT) SYSTEMS APPROACH TO THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGIC RESOURCES

ABSTRACT The management of a strategic resource, like water or energy, is inextricably linked with the management of its quality and requires an integrated approach which carefully balances the needs of resource managers with that of clients. The managers and the associated technical staff bring to bear large amounts of (experiential) knowledge; knowledge which is constantly changing and is largely undocumented. Expert systems methods, tools and techniques can help in the acquisition, representation and deployment of such knowledge, particularly in the design and rehabilitation of (sewerage-) systems, control and and monitoring of (water-) distribution networks and in the quality management of (water-) supply systems. Three case studies are presented in this paper which cover novel ways of knowledge acquisition, through video tapes and rapid prototyping, and new techniques of knowledge representation and deployment, by using task-based, object-oriented schemata and reasoning strategies. Two of the case studies mentioned in this paper were carried out on behalf of the U.K. Alvey Advanced Information Technology Programme with active technical collaboration and financial support from the UK Water Industry.