Development of a hybrid expert system-multi criteria analysis on erosion and sediment control in construction industry

Abstract

Construction activities combined with heavy rainfall can results in severe soil loss which eventually will be deposited into the adjacent water bodies via stormwater. The Best Management Practices (BMPs) adopted to minimise the erosion and sedimentation during construction activities are usually determined by standard guidelines and expert engineers. However, when the expertise and data are limited, knowledge-based systems have been proved as an effective alternative in making decision. A new algorithm of hybrid knowledge-based expert system and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) was developed to minimise erosion and sedimentation due to stormwater in Malaysian construction sites. In this Eco-Friendly Erosion and Sediment Control (ECO-ESC) system, decision tables were developed based on the knowledge acquired from the domain experts specialised in erosion and sedimentation control and guidelines. The MCA was used to identify the best stormwater control measures based on the specific criteria and criterion’s weight. The ECO-ESC was validated in three stages: preliminary by the experts, field and statistical validations. Results of comparison have shown high correlation for recommended BMPs, sediment yield, and the water quality monitoring and proved that the ECO-ESC performs as good as the human expert in solving different problems related to the erosion and sediment control. © 2016 Korean Society of Civil Engineers and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg