Movements of earth slopes are common and often costly occurrences. The development of a decision aid to provide appropriate remedialactions and to restore slopes to acceptable degrees of safety is ofconsiderable practical importance. Achievements to date in developing a decision support system for the evaluation and tretment of slope instability are presented. The conceptual design, applicability and functions of the system are established through a combination of techniques, including the use of an expert panel. The three main components for the system are knowledge base, supporting data bases, andanalytical program support. Initial implementation has produced a personal computer-based prototype system, which is described and illustrated with an example. Conclusions drawn from this study include the following: (a) the domain of landslide analysis and treatment is well suited to the expert-system approach because it involves reasoning processes and data interpretations that are based on experience;(b) knowledge acquisition is a critical and involved activity in the system development effort, and simple techniques (interviews and questionnaires) appear to be inadequate for the creation of a robust knowledge base; (c) a fully implemented system requires a powerful computer environment with multi-tasking capabilities. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1309, Geotechnical engineering 1991.
Abstract