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3.1. ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATIONSMany areas relating to measuring the quality of the environment and enforcement of environmental legislation are appropriate for expert systems development. The development of expert systems for examining pollution and contamination is growing. Environmental expert systems are being developed and used in a number of countries. The SIRENAS expert system, developed by a department of the Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry of Spain, simulates the results of a release of hazardous material and assesses the risks posed by the accident. A similar system that assesses pollution sources and exposure has been developed in Russia (Liebowitz, 1994). The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Reactor Safety Assessment System helps a nuclear reactor safety team respond to a power plant accident. The Expert Disclosure Analysis and Avoidance System helps the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determine what information concerning toxic chemical releases may be released to the public without compromising information that it is legally obligated to protect from public disclosure (Karna, 1985). Expert-system-based ecologist workstations are used in Russia to perform environmental protection tasks in industrial areas (Kuzmin and Solovyov, 1993). The SAFE prototype expert system determines causes for poor indoor air quality in Italy (Liebowitz, 1994). The SEPIC expert system aids the Travis County, Texas, Heath Department in assessing applications for installing sewers (Karna, 1985). 3.2. CONSTRUCTION AND PLANNING APPLICATIONSStructural engineering and planning applications involve numerous mathematical methods and calculations that would normally have to be mastered before proceeding to the planning stages of structural development. Through the use of well-defined rules, often involving symbolic representations, expert systems relieve engineers of some of the planning/inspection and design difficulties. The regulation and enforcement of building codes is a primary function of local governments. This area involves a large number of complex regulations and the plan checkers who administer them often have little experience. A prototype expert system used by the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, aids in the review of compliance within the fire separation component of Vancouver's building bylaws. The system increases the productivity of plan checkers and improves the accuracy and consistency of regulation enforcement (Heikkila and Blewett, 1992). The NORM expert system evaluates architectural applications submitted to a local city planning agency in Italy to identify any part of the application that does not comply with building laws and rules (Liebowitz, 1994). The Mexican Federal Electric Commission's SE-Viento expert system guides and assists the calculation of wind loads on buildings during the design stage (Liebowitz, 1994). The Computerized Highway Noise Analyst is a rule-based expert system that is used to control a highway noise barrier design model called OPTIMA. AUGERPILE is an expert system being developed to aid in the field inspection of augured concrete cast-in-place pile installation (Karna, 1985). 3.3. LAW AND LAW ENFORCEMENT APPLICATIONSLegal and law enforcement applications of artificial intelligence and expert systems are not found as often as in other areas. This may be due in part to lawyers' traditional distrust of new information technologies. Implementations of expert systems in the legal arena, however, are growing. The Police Officer Large Expert System assists police authorities in their day-to-day handling of law enforcement activities. This system provides coordination of quick reaction and order in sudden events, organization of information about police situations, and assistance in decisions applying Chinese policy and law. The Computer Aided Crime Investigation Tool expert system supports crime scene reconstruction in Taiwan (Liebowitz, 1994). PSR-Advisor helps probation officers make sentence recommendations to U.K. Magistrate's Courts (Copley, 1994). EVIDENT is a prototype expert system for determining the admissibility of evidence under U.S. federal rules (Zeide and Liebowitz, 1994). 3.4. SOCIAL SERVICES APPLICATIONSIn the U.S., welfare and social services assistance is provided by state departments of public welfare through the administration of a number of welfare programs. Rules and regulations governing welfare and social service programs are the responsibility of federal and state governments. Relatively few expert systems applications exist in the social services and public welfare sector of government because of the difficulty in gathering the knowledge needed to implement systems. Increased development in the social services and public welfare arena is needed. The Foster Care Expert System (FOCES) is a system being developed to provide advice to social workers at the Roanoke City, Virginia, Department of Social Services. The primary goal of the system is to match children with possible foster care homes (Karna, 1985). The Tulare County, California, Department of Public Social Services has placed an expert system in the county's rural areas. The system explains the county's welfare services in six languages to the neediest citizens and leads them through the application process (Betts, 1993). An expert system at the Human Services Agency in California's Merced County helped the agency make some needed improvements. MAGIC (Merced Automated Global Information Control) helps integrate Aid to Dependent Children, Food Stamps, Medi-Cal, Foster Care, and Refugee Cash Assistance programs into one system. The integration of these programs into one system has enabled the agency to fully automate the process of determining eligibility and availability of benefits as well as assist in tracking, scheduling, monitoring, and reporting case-management information. MAGIC allows caseworkers to become more productive by eliminating tedious filing and manual tracking procedures. Before MAGIC, an applicant would complete a 12-14 page form before an initial meeting (Kidd and Carlson, 1992).
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