Steps Towards Terrain Knowledge Acquisition

In all earlier efforts in constructing prototype expert terrain-related systems, knowledge related to the physiographic region of a site was not explicitly represented and used. In this research we have identified, named, described and organized detailed, 'book-level' knowledge pertaining to physiographic regions (provinces and sections). We have developed an object-oriented model for the structural representation of the relevant domain knowledge. We have also developed a rule-base for representing the strategic knowledge needed for inferring a physiographic region from its own indicators. The presented case study concerns typical terrain of the Basin and Range Province of Southwest USA. The knowledge representation encompasses the typical physiographical sections of the Basin and Range province (Great Basin and Sonoran Desert). This conceptual scheme will lead to the Terrain Analysis eXpert (TAX-4) system. Formalizing and implementing these knowledge-based representations will result in an expert system for physiographic region identification so that the user will be guided to establish tentative hypotheses about the type of physiographic regions based on observed evidences of their indicators.