The objective of this research program is to develop a knowledge-based expert system which can assist engineers in utilizing increasingly complex models for seismic hazard evaluation and for which experience and knowledge play a key role. Experts will be consulted to identify and provide the type of information used by them to evaluate seismic hazard. An expert-system (a computer program) in which linguistic and numerical information and logic are processed, will be developed to incorporate the steps and procedures used by experts to assess seismic hazard. Finally, a case study will be conducted to check the procedures developed. The four tasks are: develop a "knowledge base" for regional seismic hazard analysis; develop an inferential network; develop a simple "knowledge-based expert system;" and implement the results of Task 3 by means of a case study.
