From conventional to knowledge-based geographic information systems

Artificial intelligence (AI) has received an explosion of interest during the last 5 years in various fields. There is no longer any question that expert systems and neural networks will be of central importance for developing the next generation of more intelligent geographic information systems. Such knowledge-based geographic information systems will play an especially key role in spatial decision and policy analysis related to issues such as environmental monitoring and management, land use planning, motor vehicle navigation, and distribution logistics. This paper sketches briefly the major characteristics of conventional geographic information systems, and then looks at some of the potentials of AI principles and techniques in a GIS environment where emphasis is laid on expert systems and artificial neural networks technologies and techniques.