CLIPS based decision support system for water distribution networks

S. Kulshrestha, R. Khosa

Drinking Water Engineering and Science

The difficulty in knowledge representation of a water distribution network (WDN) problem has contributed to the limited use of artificial intelligence (AI) based expert systems (ES) in the management of these networks. This paper presents a design of a Decision Support System (DSS) that facilitates “on-demand” knowledge generation by utilizing results of simulation runs of a suitably calibrated and validated hydraulic model of an existing aged WDN corresponding to emergent or even hypothetical but likely scenarios. The DSS augments the capability of a conventional expert system by integrating together the hydraulic modeling features with heuristics based knowledge of experts under a common, rules based, expert shell named CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System). In contrast to previous ES, the knowledge base of the DSS has been designed to be dynamic by superimposing CLIPS on Structured Query Language (SQL). The proposed ES has an inbuilt calibration module that enables calibration of an existing (aged) WDN for the unknown, and unobservable, Hazen-Williams C-values. In addition, the daily run and simulation modules of the proposed ES further enable the CLIPS inference engine to evaluate the network performance for any emergent or suggested test scenarios. An additional feature of the proposed design is that the DSS integrates computational platforms such asMATLAB, open source Geographical Information System (GIS), and a relational database management system (RDBMS) working under the umbrella of the Microsoft Visual Studio based common user interface. The paper also discusses implementation of the proposed framework on a case study and clearly demonstrates the utility of the application as an able aide for effective management of the study network.

CLIPS专家系统工具在水分配网络模型WDN中的应用

作者：S. Kulshrestha, R. Khosa

期刊：饮用水工程与科学

编目：2011年第4期

页码：1-38页

在水分配网络（WDN）存在的问题中，知识表达的困难促进了基于人工智能的专家系统的利用。本文采用已有的较成熟的水分配网络（WDN）水力模型，利用紧急的或者是假定的但是有可能出现的情景对这个模型进行适当的率定和验证，通过利用该模型的模拟结果，本文提出了一种设计决策支持系统(DSS)，促进了按需知识的生成。在一个共同的、基于规则的、专家命名为C语言集成产生式系统（CLIPS）下，通过将水力模型的特征和基于专家知识的启发式知识整合在一起，决策支持系统（DSS）增强了传统专家系统的能力。相比于以前的专家系统（ES），决策支持系统（DSS）的知识基础通过在结构化查询语言（SQL）上叠加CLIPS被设计成动态的。推荐的专家系统有一个内置的校核模块，能够对存在的未知的、观察不到的Hazen-Williams C值进行校核。另外，专家系统的日常运行和模拟模块使得CLIPS的推论工具能评价任何紧急的或者建议的测试场景的网络性能。所提出的设计的另一个特征是决策支持系统整合了诸多计算平台，例如MATLAB，GIS，以及基于常用用户界面的关系数据库管理系统（RDBMS）。本文还讨论了提议的框架结构的案例研究，清晰地表明了这个应用程序是利用网络进行有效管理的有力助手。