A knowledge-based approach for supporting locational decisionmaking

Abstract

A system for providing decision support to people who make locational decisions is described in which the domain-specific knowledge of users is combined with the general problem-solving strategies, techniques, and mathematical models of location analysts. The system elicits and stores separately environmental, procedural, and structural knowledge so that experts in particular problem domains can access, examine, and modify this knowledge. A metaplanner interacts with users to generate scenarios which describe the general problem-solving strategy to be pursued. These scenarios are organised into a series of tractable problems which are solved in a subproblem-solver module consisting of location-allocation and other analytical models. The system enables decisionmakers to examine systematically the results of a series of analyses leading to a desired solution. The approach is suitable for location-selection problems in complex geographical decisionmaking environments.