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The Public Participation in the Water Resources Management on the Expert System Basis Barbara Karleuša Boris Beraković

Abstract: An example of the public participation in the water resources management on the expert system basis is presented in this paper. The expert system is expected to improve water resources management by including people in water resources management activities. Involvement of the public in water resources management is a constant and time consuming process that should begin by educating the public about the importance of water resources, introducing public to the basic structure of water management processes and their own role in the process. Based on this idea an expert system was generated to create a connection and achieve better collaboration between public and institutions responsible for water management. Depending on the problem related to water and the location at which the problem occurs, the expert system guides the interested party (individual or a representative of a group like local community, club, association etc.) to the responsible institution and even to the exact department in the institution. Another advantage of this system is the possibility for the public of submitting notifications about spotted water problems and directly forwarding them to the relevant institutions. This approach could improve the recognition of problems in time, which is one of the initial and important, steps in planning the water resources management. An expert system like this could be, with the appropriate computer interface, placed at water management institutions web sites. It could be useful to individuals, directorate and municipal bodies, and other interested parties for directing their inquiries to the right institution. This example is an idea of how expert systems can be used in water management with the goal of improving the integration of public in water management process. Keywords: public participation, water management

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Karleuša, Beraković

Introduction Water management is a set of permanent complex activities that implies water use, flood protection and water conservation and includes planning and implementation of water management strategies. The objective of water management is to satisfy human needs related to water, including fulfilling environmental, social and economic criteria. In the water management strategy planning process, the first step is to recognise the problems related to water. Institutions competent for water management should carefully and continuously observe processes that are occurring in society and that are related to water, in order to make optimum planning of appropriate water management strategies. Including public interested in water use, flood protection, water conservation and other activities in connection with water in the water management planning leads to acceptable, optimum projects. Some large and important projects have failed because the public was not included in the planning process or was included too late (in the final phase of the project). Public participation in water management process is possible only if the public is previously educated about water, its importance for life and further human development, the problems related to water and water management, the institutions competent for water management and its own role and potential contribution to the water management process. Educating public about the above-mentioned issues should begin with education in elementary schools. In the document of UN Agenda 21 [1] the importance of involving public in society development processes, environmental conservation and sustainable development, with the accent on involving women and children is highlighted. According to EU Water Frame Directive, involving public in making River Basin Management Plans is compulsory [2]. In Croatia the water management is in the competence of Water Management Directorate, within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry Water Management, and the stateowned company Croatian Waters, but the distribution of drinking water and the waste water disposal is in the competence of Communal Societies. Also, the use of water power is in the competence of Croatian Energy Directorate which manages water on the base of concessions that make of them institutions competent for water management in relation to the public (consumers). From the aspect of water quality, monitoring analyses are continuously performed by Croatian Waters, but also by Public Health Institutes and, in the case of water supply and sewage water disposal by Communal Societies also. There also exist other institutions related to diverse water management processes: Ministry of Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction and others. Due to the numerous institutions related to water management and their internal complex structure, determining the appropriate institution to contact for a specific problem related to water is not always an easy and simple task. Therefore it would be useful and appropriate to provide public help whereby, on the base of the problem, the person/costumer would be directed to the appropriate institution and even the right department or person.

The Public Participation in the Water Resources Management on the Expert System Basis

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Contribution of people in recognition and solving the problems related to water could be achieved using expert systems, which guide the person/costumer to relevant points in the process of solving the problems on the base of relevant information. Such expert system could be integrated on the web pages of the institutions responsible for the water management issues. The notification or request about the recognised problem related to water could be directly forwarded to the right department with the possibility for the interested party to insert all personal information and data, that gives to the notification a bigger weight, or can be made anonymously. In the latter case, the problem can be treated as an indication and should be verified on the field.

Expert system basics Expert systems are computational tools that mimic or at least try to mimic the human thinking process and the human capability for solving problems and decision making by using knowledge bases and rules from a desired domain. They are appropriate for solving badly or poorly structured problems such as water management problems, because their solution can be based on heuristic and empirical knowledge [3]. They are capable of incorporating mathematical models, empirical knowledge and expert judgements, engineering intuition, heuristic rules and needed information, in order to provide a useful advice to the user that can help him make the best decision related to the problem. According to [4], there are two types of expert systems: knowledge based expert systems (KBES) and expert systems based on neural networks (NN). Often a combination of knowledge based expert systems and neural networks, called the hybrid expert system or expert network, is used. The knowledge based expert system can be the rule based, the rule inducing or the case based expert system. Expert systems consist of six subsystems [5]: knowledge acquisition, knowledge base, working memory, inference engine, explanation system and user interface, while three “persons” are involved in design, development, maintenance and work of the expert system: user(s) – person that will use the expert system via users interface, expert(s) – expert person or other sources of knowledge (such as literature: books, journals, Internet etc.) from which expert knowledge for the knowledge base is acquired, and knowledge engineer(s) – person that generate the expert system on the base of the acquired knowledge and later on maintain, update and include new knowledge (Figure 1.). The knowledge engineer and the expert can even be the same person. The inference engine makes conclusion based on the knowledge base and applied IFTHAN rules. Expert systems can be designed using a programming language or an expert shell. Programming languages used for the expert system design are Lisp, Prolog, C and Pascal, and nowadays C++, Java, Visual Basic and others [4,5,6]. For the design of expert systems using programming languages, it is necessary to have programming skills and to know the basic principles and rules of programming.


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RULE BASED EXPERT SYSTEM

E X P E R T

Knowledge acquisition system

Knowledge base

Working memory

Inference Explanation engine system

User interface

U S E R

KNOWLEDGE ENGINEER Figure 1 Expert system scheme

Expert shells are tools that enable people that do not have a good knowledge of programming to design expert systems. They are developed by eliminating knowledge bases from expert systems used for specific problems or fields, creating the so called “empty” expert systems – expert shells. Embedding new knowledge base in these expert shells using the old principles for inference and explanation, the new expert system can be designed. Nowadays there is a wide range of different expert shells on the market that can include different types of expert systems (rule based, rule inducing, case based expert systems and/or neural networks). Some of them are free such as: BABYLON, ES, GEST, CLIPS, RT-Expert for DOS Personal Edition, while the others are for sale: Aion Development System (ADS) ART Enterprise, Doctus KBS, Expert choice, Expert edge, EXSYS, Insight 2+, KEE, Knowledge kraft, M.4, Nexpert Object, OPS83, Personal Consultant, Personal Expert, RTExpert, XpertRule and many others [6]. The use of expert systems in water management is diffused all over the world in: water quality control [7,8], drinking or sewage water treatments [9,10,11], development and management of water supply, sewage, irrigation, drainage and food protection systems [12,13,14,15], water management strategy planning [16] etc. In this paper the expert shell Xpert Rule KBS (Attar Software Ltd.) was used for the design of the expert system.

Expert system development Developing expert systems can be explained by the following procedure [5]: 1) Statement of the problem to be solved 2) Searching for human expert or the equivalent data or experience 3) Design of the expert system 4) Selection of the degree of participation of the user 5) Selection of the development tool (programming language or shell) 6) Development of the expert system prototype


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7) Prototype verification and refinement 8) Maintenance and updating The knowledge required for creating the knowledge base can be acquired from experts (by interviews, questionnaires etc.), from the literature where it can be stored (books, manuals, articles, laws, etc.) or from internet. The knowledge base necessary for building the expert system that should direct the public to a competent institution on the base of the stated problem related to water and the location at which the problem occurs is, in this paper, mostly derived from the authors' knowledge extended by the knowledge from literature and internet. Problems related to water can be assigned to three categories: • Problems related to the use of water and water goods • Problems related to water protection and conservation • Problems related to flood and erosion protection The problems related to the use of water and water goods can be: inadequate pressure in water supply systems, bad quality of water in water supply systems, public interest in water use for irrigation, interest in building and use of hydroelectric plants, interest in exploitation of sand and gravel etc. The problems occurring in relation to water protection and conservation can be: recognition of river or sea pollution, recognition of points where the nontreated waste water or waste material is emitted in water resources (rivers, lakes, seas), recognition of wild waste disposals in water protection zones, recognition of leakage form septic tanks etc. The problems related to flooding, flooding protection and erosion protection can be: periodical recognition of flooding the areas from rivers, periodical recognition of flooding due to inadequate rainwater drainage, river embankment ruining, bad maintenance of drainage systems, icefloods etc. and recognition of erosion processes. This is a rather rough overview of problems that the public is capable to recognize and which, if recognized at the right time, can help in improving the quality of planning the water management strategies. In the first problem solving step, as well as in later water management strategy implementation control, the public has a considerable role. The public is the local inhabitants living in the water management area (watershed), the inhabitants that live outside the watershed but have advantages from it, and all other inhabitants. The public is: individuals, local, region and state authorities that should represent the constituents' interests, other representatives, nongovernmental organizations, different groups, clubs, societies etc. The institutions responsible for water management in Croatia are Water Management Directorate, within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, and Croatian Waters, but also Communal Societies, Public Health Institutes, Ministry of Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction and others. The competent institutions are numerous and also complex in their inner structure.


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Within the Water management Directorate there are inspections at the state and region levels, while Croatian Water are structured on the state level, water region and watershed areas levels and by categories: use of water, water protection and conservation and flood and erosion protection. Communal societies are organized on administrative unit basis (cities or municipalities) and can include both drinking water supply systems and sewerage systems or just one of them. In this paper an overview of basic problems related to water is given. Expert systems are capable of upgrading and updating so it is possible to expand the set of problems related to water and to include other institution related to the water management process creating a wider and even better expert system.

Expert system in use The user/the public uses the developed expert system through the user interface shown in figures 2 to 8. Figures from 2 to 8 show the path of the user from the recognized problem, in “water use” water management area, “inadequate (too low or too high) pressure in water supply system”, and on the base of the region “Primorsko-goranska županija” and the city “Rijeka” at which the problem is recognized, to the competent water management institution related to the problem. That is Communal Society - Vodovod i kanalizacija d.o.o. Rijeka, and the exact department and person to contact (address, telephone, fax, e-mail).

Figure 2 Selecting the water management area in which a problem is recognized

Figure 3 Selecting the problem related to water or water-goods use


Figure 4 Selecting the general institution responsible for the problem or the specific department related to the location at which the problem occurs

Figure 5 Selecting the region in which the problem occurs

Figure 6 Selecting the city or municipality in which the problem occurs

Figure 7 The result of using the expert system: the person/department in a responsible water management institution to contact related to the recognized problem (information taken from web site (17))

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Summary An example of the public participation in the water resources management, using an expert system that guides the public to the water management institution that is responsible for a defined problem is presented. The goal of this paper is to illustrate how to achieve better communication between the public and water management institutions using today’s technology (like internet) in order to reach a higher quality in planning the water management strategy and in control of the implementation of the plan. The use of such expert system could be useful to individuals, directorate and municipal bodies, and other interested parties for directing their inquiries to the right institution. This example is an idea of how expert systems can be used in water management with the goal of improving the water management process.

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