Regulatory controls for handling hazardous material in tunnels and on bridges are extensive, detailed, and subject to constant changes. Local authorities responsible for tunnel and bridge facilities are concerned with developing facility restrictions for hazardous materials that will reduce the risk of death and injury without unnecessarily burdening commerce. The lack of expertise among tunnel personnel in general and the lack of a scientific basis on which to develop such regulations, however, have created problems for local tunnel authorities when they must update restrictions or create new ones for new materials introduced by industry. This paper describes the development of a prototype expert system to aid decision making about hazardous material safety in tunnel and bridge transportation. The regulatory process is modelled as a classification type of problem, which lends itself neatly to an expert system implementation. A heuristic problem solver, which is commonly used in solving classification problems, involves systematically matching the attributes of an unknown entity to a set of pre-defined solutions. For this study's application, the regulatory groupings inherent in existing tunnel regulations are the basis for the development of the solution space. The computer program developed uses knowledge that specifies the appropriate regulation applicable to a new commodity based on the material's physical and chemical properties.
Samenvatting