An expert system for flow routing in a river network

Flow routing in a river network is one of the most important parts in the domain of water resources and hydrology. There are different characteristics in the different river networks. The mathematical models adopted to deal with the flow routing have their own advantages respectively. Thus a suitable model should be selected to solve the problem of flow routing on a specially appointed river network. But this selection is very difficult and requires highly specialized knowledge and expertise about the models. It is not easy and not appropriate for a civil engineer to spend much time in learning how to select a suitable model and how to manipulate it. Recent developments in mathematical model of flow routing and artificial intelligence have rendered it possible to construct an expert system to help civil engineers make this kind of decision. An expert system is addressed to handle this decision-making in this paper. The way for manipulation of the selected model and whether or not the interbasin rainfall-runoff should be considered are integrated into the system too. VP-Expert is employed as the shell of this expert system. The expert system has been tested on the Changtan watershed, north Guangdong province of China.