Development of an expert system for assessing trumpeter swan breeding habitat in the Northern Rocky Mountains.
Richard S. Sojda, John E. Cornely, Adele E. Howe · Waterbirds · 2002
A decision support system for the management of the Rocky Mountain Population of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) is being developed. As part of this, three expert systems are also in development: one for assessing the quality of Trumpeter Swan breeding habitat; one for making water level recommendations in mon- tane, palustrine wetlands; and one for assessing the contribution a particular site can make towards meeting objec- tives from a flyway perspective. The focus of this paper is the development of the breeding habitat expert system, which currently consists of 157 rules. Our purpose is to provide decision support for issues that appear to be beyond the capability of single persons to conceptualize and solve. We propose that by involving multiple experts in the development and use of the system, management will be significantly improved. The knowledge base for the expert system has been developed using standard knowledge engineering techniques with a small team of ecological ex- perts. Knowledge was then coded using production rules organized in decision trees using a commercial expert sys- tem development shell. The final system has been deployed on the world wide web.