The STREAMES project: linking heuristic and empirical knowledge into an expert system to assess stream managers

Abstract

The increase in stream nutrient loads from anthropogenic sources has become a serious problem, especially in developed regions. Humans affect streams by modifying the landscape in ways that increase the transport of nutrients to surface waters, by directly dumping urban or industrial sewage into the stream, or by modifying streams in ways that reduce their ability to respond to increased nutrient loads. In Mediterranean regions these problems are compounded by the scarcity of water. The decision-making processes involved in water quality management require extensive human expertise or extensive computation with large data sets. In this sense, the STREAMES project aims to develop a knowledge-based environmental decision support system (EDSS) to support and advice water managers in the management of human-altered streams. This EDSS will integrate an Expert System (ES), concretely a rule-based reasoning system (RBS), with a Geographical Information System to address spatial information for the appropriate stream management actions, and a numerical model to estimate point and non-point nutrient sources from middle size catchments. The RBS will be developed by integrating heuristic knowledge from experts in surface water management, as well as empirical knowledge from stream scientists, based both on previous studies and on data directly acquired from experimental sampling. This paper will present the objectives of the STREAMES project with emphasis in the knowledge acquisition and development of the RBS.