Disaster mitigation in the Caribbean using expert systems

摘要

The emergence of expert systems technology has created much excitement in most fields of engineering around the world and one of the more promising application areas for this emerging technology is in the area of disaster mitigation. In this paper, therefore several prototype Knowledge-Based Expert Systems (KBES) utilizing a commercially available expert system tool INSIGHT 2+ are described which demonstrate how this technology could be used by practising engineers in the area of natural disaster mitigation in the Caribbean. Since building codes already represent knowledge in a codified but usually ill-structured form, they lend themselves readily for the application of expert systems technology. Accordingly the recently published Caribbean Uniform Building Code (CUBiC) has been utilized to develop the knowledge bases for two of the prototypical systems in respect of hurricane and earthquake loads. The paper concludes with a discussion of the anticipated benefits from such an approach which include a computer assisted “expert” consultation for the assessment and evaluation of existing essential building facilities such as hospitals which should remain functional after a major natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane.