Representing spatial and domain knowledge within a spatial decision support framework

Experts are looking for ways to improve the monitoring of unstable slopes. A spatial decision support system (SDSS) is a software tool that can be used to support an expert in making complex decisions when solving problems. Many SDSSs use a geographic information system (GIS) to help analyze and manage spatial data. However, many GISs do not take advantage of expert knowledge. An expert system (ES) is a program that can be used to represent and reason with different kinds of knowledge when solving unstructured problems. The ability to find solutions to these problems can be enhanced by integrating a CIS and an ES. This research presents a candidate framework that represents basic spatial and domain knowledge through ontologies and integrates the knowledge within an ES-GIS environment. C Language Integrated Production System and ArcCIS provide the ES-GIS framework that is used to demonstrate this candidate framework through two small monitoring examples.