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FUTURE OF EXPERT SYSTEMS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Citation:
Greathouse, D. AND J. Decker. FUTURE OF EXPERT SYSTEMS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/D-91/008 (NTIS PB91162727).
Description:
As in other organizations, the history of expert systems in the Environmental Protection Agency is very short. pproximately five years ago, the focus of our expert systems activities was to assess their feasibility and utility as environmental decision aids. ast year the Agency approved a five year funding initiative to support development of a number of systems to assist in management and implementation of Superfund activities. hereas initial systems were limited to a few engineering and technical issues, the scope of today's systems includes legal, regulatory and administrative issues. otwithstanding this rapid evolution in scope and funding, expert systems are not currently mainstream decision making tools in the Environmental Protection Agency. any decision makers are either not familiar with expert systems or are skeptical that they can provide meaningful and reliable advice. ince expert systems are so new and have not yet been proved for wide spread application in regulatory environment, their future is uncertain. ith this background, this paper will propose one or more scenarios for the future of expert systems in the Environmental Protection Agency.