Author(s)

M. Boyd, W.J. Walley & H.A. Hawkes

Abstract

Dempster-Shafer reasoning for the biological surveillance of river water quality M. Boyd, W.J. Walley, H.A. Hawkes Department of Civil Engineering, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK ABSTRACT An application of Dempster-Shafer reasoning for the biological surveillance of river water quality is described. A reasoning system is being developed which emulates the expert's ability to determine the quality of river water from samples of benthic macro-invertebrate communities taken from the river bed. Diagnoses of river water quality are reported in terms of a proposed biological classification scheme. Ecological knowledge on a reference set of indicator organisms is stored in the form of subjective probability distributions, representing the occurrence of the organisms in each of four discrete states of abundance across the quality classes. These distributions provide support for competing propositions in the frame of discernment formed by the biological classes. Com

Keywords