Norm: An Expert System for Development Control in Underdeveloped Operational Contexts

Abstract

The paper deals with the attempt to build a legal planner expert system, NORM, for the building-application inspection branch of a local city planning agency, within an ill-organized administrative structure. The authors report the first stage of the research, mainly concerned with knowledge acquisition (by means of a method of shared observation, which directly focuses on the expert's real problem-solving behavior), knowledge representation, and implementation of a rough prototype. The first results of the research have shown that heuristics have a strong role in the human expert's cognitive-inferential model, human experts resorting to memory packages, stories, and analogies to streamline their problem-solving, and that many reasoning schemes in the procedure are largely unmanageable by expert systems. Another interesting finding has been the need which emerged from the research for a better understanding of problem-solving routines in the field of planning, ranging from taxonomies to behavioral (especially community-based) patterns in planning.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barbanente

Borri

, 1990, “Organizzazione e uso della conoscenza in un sistema esperto pianificatore ambientale” Archivio di Studi Urbani e Regionali 38–39 241–265

Barbanente

Borri

, 1991, “Il nucleo antico di Bari: Un modello sospeso fra marginalità a tendenze alla valorizzazione” Archivio di Studi Urbani e Regionali 22 40, 43–72

Barbanente

Borri

Conte

Maciocco

, 1992, “Planning urban open spaces by expert systems”, paper presented at Planning in a Time of Change, The 6th AESOP Congress, Stockholm, Sweden; copy available from the authors

Barthet

M F

Hanachi

, 1991, “What kind of interface for expert systems?” Expert Systems with Applications 2 195–200

Borri

, 1985, “Modelli e politiche della trasformazione urbana”, in Segni e Evidenze: Atlante Sociale di Bari Eds Amendola

Barbanente

Borri

Ferrara

Nuzzolese

(Dedalo, Bari) pp 95–105

Borri

, 1992, “Formal vs informal evaluation procedures in planner expert system”, paper prepared for the Workshop on Evaluation of Comprehensive Urban Planning, University of Umea, Umea, Sweden; copy available from the author

Forester

, 1993, “On the ethics of planning”, in Process and Policy Evaluation in Structure Planning Eds Khakee

Eckerberg

(Swedish Council for Building Research, Stockholm) pp 63–90

Forsythe

D E

Buchanan

B G

, 1989, “Knowledge acquisition for expert systems: Some pitfalls and suggestions” IEEE, Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics 19 435–442

Graham

Jones

P L

, 1988 Expert Systems Knowledge, Uncertainty and Decision (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Andover, Hants)

10.

Kolodner

, 1984 Retrieval and Organizational Strategies in Conceptual Memory: A Computer Model (Lawrence Erlbaum, Totowa, NJ)

11.

Olson

J R

Reuter

H H

, 1987, “Extracting expertise from experts: Methods for knowledge acquisition” Expert Systems 4 153–156

12.

Ortolano

Perman

C D

, 1990, “Applications to urban planning: An overview”, in Expert Systems: Applications to Urban Planning Eds Kim

T J

Wiggins

L L

Wright

J R

(Springer, New York) pp 3–13

13.

Rodriguez-Bachiller

, 1991a, “Desktop planning: Can computers help? The example of an expert system for training in development control”, paper presented at Planning Transatlantic: Global Change and Local Problems, A Joint ACSP and AESOP International Congress, Oxford; copy available from the author, School of Planning, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

14.

Rodriguez-Bachiller

, 1991b, “Diagnostic expert systems in planning: Some patterns of system design”, in Second International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management, School of Planning, Oxford Polytechnic, Oxford, UK, 6–8 July 1991 Ed. Klosterman

R E

, Institute for Computer-Aided Planning, University of Akron, Akron, OH, pp 167–182

15.

Rolston

D W

, 1988 Principles of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems Development (McGraw-Hill, Reading, Berks)

16.

Rowe

A J

Watkins

P R

, 1992, “Beyond expert systems—reasoning, judgment, and wisdom” Expert Systems with Applications 4 1–10

17.

Sabatier

, 1975, “Social movements and regulatory agencies. Toward a more adequate, less pessimistic theory of ‘clientele capture’” Policy Sciences 6 301–342

18.

Sainati

, 1987, “Droit du sol et systèmes experts”, in Proceedings Urban Data Management Symposium, Blois, Ed. Laurini

, Urban Data Management Society and Institut National de Sciences Appliqueés de Lyon, Lyon, pp 191–203

19.

Simon

H A

, 1985, “Il ruolo delle aspettative in un modello adattivo o di comportamento”, in Le Aspettative nell'Analisi Economica Ed. Visco

(Il Mulino, Milano) pp 155–175

20.

Weiser

Shertz

, 1983, “Programming problem representation in novice and expert programmers” International Journal of Man—Machine Studies 19 48–62

21.

Yourcenar

, 1968 L'Oeuvre au Noir (Gallimard, Paris)